Murder trials being delayed for Perez-Lopez, Cohn

A Springdale capital murder trial set to begin today in Washington County Circuit Court will be reset, and a Fayetteville cold case murder trial set for late February has a new date.

A trial for Juan Pablo Perez-Lopez, 29, was scheduled to start today. A new trial date has not yet been set.

Perez-Lopez told police he stabbed Jesus Cecilio Villalobos, a Springdale auto mechanic, about 20 times Feb. 13, 2013.

Motorists called Springdale police about two men fighting on Huntsville Avenue and said one of them had a knife and was riding away on a bicycle. Police found Perez-Lopez on a bicycle with a knife and bloody hands, then found Villalobos, 48, in a parking lot with multiple stab wounds to his chest and his throat cut, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in the case.

Perez-Lopez's trial is being delayed because a second mental evaluation to determine if he's fit to stand trial hasn't been completed. An earlier examination at the Arkansas State Hospital found Perez-Lopez fit to proceed.

Perez-Lopez pleaded not guilty last year. He is in the Washington County jail without bond.

In the other case, the capital murder trial for Rico Tavarous Cohn, who is accused in the death of Nina Ingram, has been reset to July 13-24. The case had been set to begin Feb. 23.

Cohn, 28, is charged with capital murder in the death of Ingram, who was a 21-year-old University of Arkansas student. Ingram was found strangled inside her Sycamore Street apartment April 22, 2006. Cohn was arrested and charged after Fayetteville police reopened the case in 2012.

Cohn repeatedly has denied killing Ingram.

The case is being delayed because independent testing of some evidence isn't complete, according to attorneys handling the case.

If convicted, Perez-Lopez and Cohn face either life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty. Prosecutors haven't said whether they will seek the death penalty in either case.

Both cases were transferred to Circuit Judge Mark Lindsay when Judge William Storey's term ended at the end of last year.

NW News on 01/26/2015

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