The trial for former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez on multiple charges, including premeditated attempted murder, is now tentatively scheduled to begin in late January 2024.
Cain Velasquez in 2015 | SCREENSHOT: Latino Vibes/YouTube
Cain Velasquez is in this predicament based on allegations that he targeted Harry Goularte, a man accused of molesting Velasquez’s then-four-year-old son at a daycare. Reportedly, Velasquez caught up with Goularte and attempted to shoot him during a high speed vehicular chase, but in doing so he shot Goularte’s stepfather Paul Bender instead, which caused injury. Goularte has pled not guilty to the charges in his molestation case.
Last Wednesday, Judge Daniel Nishigaya granted an additional extension on the trial date, which he has already pushed back multiple times since early 2023.
“I am willing to give this another setting date with the understanding I will be intending to set a trial date in the middle-to-later part of January, on Dec. 6,” Nishagaya from the Santa Clara County (Calif.) Hall of Justice. The hearing was Velasquez’s fifth trial setting dating back to January. Each was continued at the request of the defense.
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Cain Velasquez was not present at Wednesday’s hearing. If found guilty, Velasquez faces a minimum of 20 years and up to life in prison.
Velasquez has not fought in the UFC since February 2019, when he lost to Francis Ngannou by KO. He has a career MMA record of 14-3. After exiting the Octagon, he tried his hand in the world of professional wrestling, performing for the lucha libre promotion AAA in Mexico before briefly signing with WWE.
However, he was released by World Wrestling Entertainment in 2020. During his time as a sports entertainer, he rekindled his MMA feud with fellow combat fighting star Brock Lesnar.
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