Court hearing postponed for man accused of killing his own daughter

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Michael Garcia is accused of killing his own daughter – and the details of her death are horrifying. But everyone will have to wait a little longer to find out if Garcia is going to stay in jail until his trial.

A hearing on this case was scheduled for Wednesday, but some unexpected drama emerged once it got underway. Now Garcia may need another lawyer.

As soon as his pretrial detention hearing started, his attorney with the public defender’s office said she can not ethically represent Garcia under extraordinary circumstances.

According to the criminal complaint, it was last Friday when police arrived at Meadow Brook Mobile Home Park and found Garcia’s two-year-old daughter dead inside the home. Officers said the toddler was badly burned and bruised. Garcia claims his daughter fell into a bathtub and also burned herself on the stove.

The attorney representing Garcia said the complaint left out a detail they just found out this afternoon, which led to this not only getting delayed, but for Garcia to get a new attorney.

“The mother of the child who is the alleged victim in this case is not named by her name in the criminal complaint, but it turns out we do represent her in house at the public defender’s office. Therefore, we have a conflict of interest in the case which I, unfortunately, did not discover until this afternoon,” said Garcia’s attorney.

Garcia’s next hearing is scheduled for Tuesday in order to give his new attorney time to look over the case.