FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — The alleged getaway driver in the high-profile killing of Caleb Quick returned to court on Monday. The teen girl wore an orange sweater and blue pants in the courtroom closed to cameras.
Her mother, father, stepfather and grandfather sat in the front row behind her. She never looked at them and instead focused straight ahead as her attorneys requested a delay.
“There’s some additional discovery the prosecution will be providing,” defense attorney Jeff Hammerschmidt told Action News.
He is now combing through phone records as he defends his juvenile client, who Action News is not naming, against a murder charge.
She is accused of killing Caleb Quick at a Clovis McDonald’s in April. Investigators believe her boyfriend shot Quick and then sped off in a white Tesla, with the girl behind the wheel.
“There’s nothing in any of the phone records that we see that shows that the two of them were conspiring to kill her friend,” Hammerschmidt said.
The victim’s father believes the evidence tells a different story.
“Were they planning this?” Action News asked.
“Oh, absolutely,” Steve Quick said. “They wouldn’t both be charged with the same crime if she were just a random person on the street that he didn’t know.”
Quick says he has been piecing together the crime himself.
“I’ve gone to the church where they all used to go, gone to the McDonald’s,” he said. “I’ve sat in there (and) looked at all the cameras. I’ve talked to a lot of kids who knew him.”
Prosecutors are now pursuing a “transfer hearing” to move the case to adult court, where a murder conviction could bring a life prison sentence.
Attorneys plan to schedule that hearing on December 9, estimating it could begin in February.
“Do you think there’s any chance of this case resolving for your client without going to a trial?” Action News asked.
“Yes, there’s a possibility of that,” Hammerschmidt said. He added that negotiations are not yet underway.
With the court process playing out, the girl and her one-time boyfriend are set to remain in juvenile hall, where Action News has learned they can see each other through windows, but cannot communicate.
“They’re getting a due process that my son didn’t get, and that’s not fair,” Quick said. “But, luckily, we live in a civil society, where if they did something like this, we got to go through the channels, and I believe in that very much so.”
