SANTA MARIA - The sudden death of Judge Edward Bullard last weekend has created a highly unusual situation in Santa Maria Superior Court.
Judge Bullard was presiding over a long murder trial with three defendants charged in the deadly shooting of Isidro Madera in Lompoc back in January 2010.
"It's a serious loss of his passing for the legal community and the courts and for everyone involved", says veteran Santa Maria attorney Michael B. Clayton.
Clayton says he's cannot remember a judge passing away in the middle of a trial he was involved in, let alone a murder trial.
"When you do a criminal case its a building process", Clayton says, "whether its the prosecution or the defense its a building process leading up to a verdict where the prosecution says guilty and the defense says not guilty."
Retired Judge Rick Brown will now preside over the remainder of the trial having already denied motions from defense attorneys for a mistrial due to Judge Bullard's death.
Clayton says Judge Brown will have to get up to speed on the case in a hurry.
"What he probably has to do is read all the transcripts from the first half of the case so he can properly rule on the second half of this case", Clayton says, "if there was anything that was ruled incorrectly because the Judge was unaware of something that happened in the first half of this trial will be a built in appeal for those gentlemen that are on trial now."
The trial continues in Santa Maria court.
