Nearly ten months after the mysterious disappearance of Sandra Rosas, the wife of Los Lobos guitarist Cesar Rosas, from their Rowland Heights, Calif., home, her half-brother Gabriel Gomez will stand trial for her murder. Gomez attended a pre-trial hearing in Pomona Superior Court on Tuesday, and the court fixed the date of the trial for Sept. 6. The trial was to begin in February, but Gomez's attorney requested a continuance to examine DNA evidence.

Gomez, who is a convicted felon, pleaded not guilty last December to murder and kidnapping charges, after police arrested him in a Whittier, Calif., bar the day after Rosas disappeared. The next day, the police found Rosas' abandoned van and discovered bloodstains inside the vehicle linked to both Gomez and Rosas.

On Jan. 27, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Homicide Detective Boyd Zumwalt told a West Covina court that Gomez had been trying to repair a strain in his relationship with Rosas, who reportedly had grown tired of supporting her half brother, both financially and emotionally. Zumwalt also told the court that Rosas' daughter, Amber Stelges, overheard threats when she called her mother's cellular phone on the day of her disappearance. Although no one responded, the officer said that Stelges overheard Gomez threatening rape and murder.

Rosas' body has still not been found, and Gomez remains in jail after Municipal Court Judge Dennis A. Aichroth denied bail during his arraignment. Gomez had a prior conviction for arson in 1989.

JAAN UHELSZKI
(August 4, 2000)