Murder Charges Are Dropped and Refiled in Boy’s Shooting

An 18-year-old man charged with murder in the fatal shooting of his 5-year-old cousin at a party won dismissal of the charges on a technicality Tuesday but didn’t get out of jail before the same charges were refiled.

Moises M. Arias, 18, had not been brought to trial within 60 days after his Superior Court arraignment, as required by law, so Judge Myron S. Brown dismissed the charges. But Deputy Dist. Atty. Thomas J. Borris quickly refiled them.

The practical effect of the refiling will be to give Arias another preliminary hearing, now scheduled for April 24. At an earlier preliminary hearing, a judge ruled that there was enough evidence to order Arias to stand trial in Superior Court.

Police said Arias had been drinking Oct. 10 when he test-fired a newly purchased handgun into a tree while children played at a birthday party in the yard of a relative’s Santa Ana house.

One bullet struck Alejandro Magana in the back, killing the 5-year-old.

Deputy Public Defender William G. Kelley, Arias’ lawyer, said the dismissal on the 60-day rule was the first for him in the more than six years he has been trying felony cases.

Kelley said the murder charges against Arias, who has been in jail on $50,000 bail since the shooting, were “a crying shame” because his client had “no intent to kill.”