More Delays In Deadly Palm Desert Shooting Case

A hearing for a Palm Desert man -- who has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to charges stemming from the shooting deaths of a father and his two-year-old daughter -- was reset this week to next month to give the defense more time to prepare.

Alcala, 42, faces two counts of first-degree murder and a count of attempted murder with a special circumstance allegation of committing multiple murders that could make him eligible for the death penalty.

Deputy District Attorney Manny Bustamante told Patch previously that prosecutors will make a decision in the coming months on whether to pursue capital punishment or life in prison without parole.

Alcala's attorney, David Macher of the Capitol Defense Team in Riverside, asked Riverside County Superior Court Judge Victoria Cameron to change a Nov. 4 hearing to later that month.

Cameron reset the hearing to Nov. 18.

In August, a judge appointed two doctors to examine Juan Carlos Alcala and ordered the reports to be returned before the Nov. 4 felony settlement conference. 

A different judge appointed a psychologist to examine Alcala in May at the request of his attorney O.G. Magno of the Riverside Capital Defense Team.

Magno said he used the report to determine whether to enter of plea of not guilty by insanity or not. Alcala's arraignment was previously delayed five times before his attorney entered the not guilty by insanity plea.

The trial will likely have several parts, a guilt phase and sanity phase, when jurors will determine "whether he knew the nautre and quality of his act at the time of the offense or whether he knew right from wrong,'' Magno said.

Alcala surrendered himself into custody shortly after the April 8 attack that killed Felipe Lozano Jr. and his daughter Doria Lozano-Reynoso at the Hovely Gardens Condominiums at 74501 42nd Ave. The girl's grandmother, Afra Lozano, 43, was wounded in the attack.

The day before the attack Alcala and Lozano reportedly got into a dispute.

Fabian Lozano, whose parents own the condo where the shooting occurred, alleged that Alcala had threatened his brother Thursday, prompting the family to call the police.

"He keyed my brother's car. He threatened my brother's life in front of the cops,'' Lozano said. "He's our neighbor. We never did anything to him. We don't know why he took it so far."

The deaths marked the first homicide in Palm Desert since Black Friday in 2008, when two men fatally shot each other in the Toys "R" Us on Fred Waring Drive near Highway 111.