By Sahaily Zazueta
MODESTO, CA — A bail bond agency filed a motion to extend time in a felony case in which the defendant has been missing for several months was denied by the Stanislaus County Superior Court on Friday — Maximiliano Solorio Maldonado was killed by his brother in Mexico in June 2021 reported missing.
The case has been adjourned to determine if the suspect is dead.
Maldonado’s defense attorneys and the bailiff agent were unable to locate him in the months after his disappearance, they said. When his attorney Ryan Roth last contacted him, Maldonado told him he was on his way back to the United States.
“The last time my office spoke directly to Mr. Maldonado, he was actually packed to go to California and we lost contact with him. It wasn’t like we just waited for him. We spoke to him directly and he said he was on his way,” said Roth, who couldn’t remember when that last conversation took place.
The Michoacán State Attorney General tweeted asking for the public’s help in locating Maldonado in August 2021. The attached image in the tweet lists June 6, 2021 as the date of Maldonado’s disappearance.
Mark Garcia, the bailiff agent on the case, was present in court to explain the lack of progress in the investigation.
In December 2021, Garcia hired investigator Ryan Smalls to coordinate an investigation in Mexico. Smalls is a former federal agent who has worked regularly with Mexico.
Garcia said the ability to coordinate with the Mexican government has been severely hampered by the pandemic and the U.S.-Mexico border crisis.
Bonds Representative John Rorabaugh told the court: “We’re just asking for additional time to be able to complete this investigation because things have been … much more difficult than usual doing this cross-border investigation. The family say he was killed by the cartel and they are still conducting part of the search themselves.”
The statement, which was submitted to the court in December, said: “[Maldonado’s brother] confirmed that a group of armed men had detained or kidnapped him (Maldonado) and had not heard from him.”
The purpose of the investigation was to verify this information received from Maldonado’s brother.
Garcia spoke to Maldonado’s brother, who is entitled to compensation in the case, and had been in touch with him. The two men were supposed to meet in Tijuana, but Garcia lost communications and the meeting never happened.
As damages, Maldonado’s brother will be responsible for paying the $100,000 forfeit for his brother’s no-show.
Rorabaugh stated, “This is a defendant who was in Mexico who has a family indemnifier who planned to come back and meet the bail bondsman when he came back and then disappeared and has not heard from the family or the bail bonds agent.” This agrees very well with the defendant being killed on that journey back through the border. It’s a very ordinary story.”
Garcia added: “This is a unique situation. I’ve been doing this for 26 years. We didn’t ask for the information, the information was given by the brother that there was a missing person’s report with the government. We thought [Maldonado] was in border proceedings and may have been picked up by federal authorities…”
The court initially extended the deadline in this case to December 13, 2021. Since then, the case has been extended by another four months.
Garcia told the court, “We’re going ahead here and trying to get rid of this problem that if the defendant is indeed deceased, the family would have to pay a significant amount of money…if he’s deceased, why should they be responsible?” that?”
If the motion goes ahead and it is proved that Maldonado is deceased, the bond would be exonerated. If the motion is denied without proceeding, then it would simply go to court.
Rorabaugh told the court: “At the very least, a sequel is necessary because if we found out after today [that Maldonado is deceased], we could not resubmit an application. The time would be up.”
The court had previously given the case two months from February 28 to confirm the defendant’s death.
Deputy District Councilor Shaun Wahid stated: “Time is up. We have agreed an additional two months to offer anything but the fact remains there has been no contact with this individual and he appears to be just evading prosecution.”
Wahid added Maldonado failed to show up on October 27, 2020, fled to Mexico, and then failed to show up again in early April 2021. “As far as I can see, the facts show that the defendant fled and is still fleeing.”
The court denied the request for an extension of time, with Judge Carrie Stephens saying there was no reason to believe there would be any progress in the investigation if she continued the matter.
In her reasoning for denying the request for an extension, Judge Stephens stated that there was no specific information as to why the investigative effort had been hampered.
In his closing comments in court, Garcia stated, “If you are aware of the news cycle, there are a lot of things going on inside the US and Mexico borders that have prohibited our access there.”
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