SAN JOSE — Cain Velasquez, the former UFC champion facing an attempted murder trial for a violent 2022 car chase in which he repeatedly shot at a man accused of molesting Velasquez’s son but wounded the man’s stepfather instead, pleaded no contest Friday to his charges in exchange for potential sentencing leniency.
Velasquez, 42, entered the plea in a San Jose courtroom in front of Judge Arthur Bocanegra. He was formally set to begin trial Sept. 9 and risked a potential sentence of life in prison had he gone to trial and been convicted by a jury of the charges of attempted murder and nine gun assault crimes.
Instead, Velasquez will be convicted but not subject to a mandatory life sentence after premeditation allegations were dropped in accordance with a plea agreement with the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office.
Cain Velasquez leaves the Santa Clara County Hall of Justice in San Jose, Calif. on Aug. 16, 2024 after Velasquez pleaded no contest to attempted murder and nine gun charges for chasing and shooting at a man accused of molesting his son in 2022. The plea was part of an agreement that dropped a mandatory life prison term from his potential sentence. (Robert Salonga/Bay Area News Group)
A sentencing hearing has been set for Oct. 18, though the actual sentencing is not expected until later in the year. Bocanegra has wide discretion on Velasquez’s sentence, and in the coming months the county probation department will produce a sentencing recommendation report weighing the severity of his crime along with potential mitigating factors, including his lack of criminal history and the sexual abuse case in which his son is a reported victim.
Velasquez and attorney Renee Hessling declined comment after Friday’s court hearing. Velasquez remains out of custody with his existing bail, home detention and supervised monitoring conditions in place.
In a statement Friday, District Attorney Jeff Rosen characterized the crime as a vigilante shooting.
“This defendant decided to become judge, jury and executioner. His actions endangered innocent bystanders, including young children and their parents, who could have been injured or killed as he shot at his intended victim,” Rosen said.
Paul Bender, the man who was wounded in the shooting, said after the hearing that he was “disappointed in our court system.”
“In a case like today when he changes his plea to guilty to 10 violent felonies involving a gun, and our system allows him to go free?” Bender said. “How in God’s name is that possible? I’m looking for someone to explain that to me.”
Paul and Patty Bender, who was in the vehicle at the time of the shooting but was not injured, were both in the court gallery for Velasquez’s plea Friday.
“We were not happy there was a plea,” Patty Bender said Friday. “The dropping of the premeditation was disappointing. I was looking forward to trial.”
Velasquez’s arrest and subsequent charges were polarizing in the Bay Area and beyond because of his international fame from a decorated mixed-martial arts career fighting out of San Jose and sympathy for the father of a then-4-year-old boy who reported being molested by the adult son of his daycare provider.
The crimes also contradicted the public consensus about Velasquez’s demeanor, who despite winning two UFC heavyweight titles was generally known as serene and soft-spoken outside the octagon as a family man and coach at the American Kickboxing Academy in South San Jose, the school he represented during his professional ascent.
In the wake of his plea, Velasquez continued to garner support from the mixed-martial arts community. Josh Thomson, a former Strikeforce lightweight world champion who trained with Velasquez at AKA for 15 years, said he believes Velasquez has been punished enough through his initial nine months in jail and ensuing house arrest.
“This should be done and over,” Thomson said. “When we start talking about a father taking actions into his own hands to protect his children, because California’s failed system hasn’t done anything for him, that’s exactly what happened. I think his time has been served.”
Throughout the case, the technical facts of the case have been largely undisputed, and Velasquez’s previous attorney, celebrity lawyer Mark Geragos, sought to refocus attention in court and in public on Velasquez acting out of rage from the idea of his son’s being sexually abused. Earlier court filings from the defense asserted that Velasquez suffered impulse control issues and brain injuries from over a decade of prizefighting; he retired in 2019.
But Deputy District Attorney Aaron French, the lead prosecutor in the case, repeatedly argued in past court hearings that the attack was premeditated given that the chase and shooting occurred three days after Harry Goularte Jr., the man charged with molesting Velasquez’s child, appeared in court and was granted monitored release.
On the afternoon of Feb. 28, 2022, Goularte was being driven by Bender, his stepfather, and was also accompanied by his mother, Patty Bender, when they all drove from Morgan Hill toward San Jose so Goularte could get fitted for an ankle monitor in accordance with his pretrial supervision by the county.
Shortly after getting into his parents’ pickup truck in Morgan Hill, authorities say Velasquez first shot at Goularte, touching off an 11-mile high-speed car chase through Morgan Hill that ended near Monterey Road and Bailey Avenue on the southern reaches of San Jose.
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Prosecutors allege that with commute traffic coming off nearby Highway 101 and a nearby school letting out about 500 feet away, Velasquez used his pickup to ram Bender’s truck before he fired several shots at the three with a .40-caliber pistol, wounding Bender in the arm and torso, then fled.
A short time later, police say Velasquez pulled over and surrendered to a Morgan Hill police officer, informing the officer that he had a handgun in his truck. Investigators would later allege that Velasquez had begun following Goularte’s parents as they left their San Martin residence, which houses the daycare business where the sexual abuse allegations were reported to have occurred.
Goularte was ordered to stand trial on one felony charge of a lewd and lascivious act with a child. His case remains in pretrial proceedings.
Velasquez has been out of jail custody since Bocanegra granted him $1 million bail and monitored release after the November 2022 preliminary examination that advanced his case toward trial. Velasquez has been allowed to participate in fight coaching as well as travel to wrestling and mixed-martial arts events due to a work exception in his home detention conditions.
Staff writer Jakob Rodgers contributed to this report.
