Defense attorney removed from murder case in Orange County

In a rare move, an Orange County Superior Court judge Thursday removed a defense attorney from a murder case over the objections of the defendant as the lawyer faces misdemeanor charges and has been unable to come to court due to a head injury.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Patrick Donahue substituted in Adam Vining of the Orange County Public Defender’s Office for private defense attorney Jerry Schaffer in the case for Zachary Pickrell, 21, who is charged with the fatal shooting of a friend in Anaheim and threatening his girlfriend’s mother, his girlfriend and their then-unborn baby.

Schaffer was hospitalized Dec. 2 for about six weeks due to a head injury, he told Donahue by phone at a hearing Thursday morning.

“I’ve been out for a while,” Schaffer said.

Donahue noted that the defense attorney had previously said he felt dizzy standing up. Schaffer said his doctors say he is unable to come to court because of the head injury and cannot guarantee when he might be able to return.

Previously, Pickrell had “waived” a conflict that Schaffer might face defending the client while also facing charges himself for violating a restraining order and making annoying phone calls, both misdemeanors.

Schaffer asked Donahue for another month for him to pursue a plea deal with a “back-up trial date” in six weeks, but Donahue said he was concerned the defense attorney could not achieve either goal.

“I don’t have any confidence you’ll be able to show up for those court dates,” Donahue said. “I don’t think there is a firm date you can set a trial on.”

Schaffer said his doctors have said, “All my limitations will be alleviated’’ within six weeks, but he acknowledged, “There’s no guarantee.”

Schaffer said he was optimistic he could negotiate a plea deal, but Senior Deputy District Attorney Brian Orue said he was unaware of any plea deal being offered.

“I’ve not been face to face with him in court for months,” Orue said.

Orue told Donahue his office did not intend to make any offer.

“I have not received any firm offers,” Schaffer told the judge.

“But it’s my belief it’s a case that should settle.”

Donahue also noted that Schaffer was in a “fees dispute” with the state bar for about nine months that led to a suspension of his law license.

The judge also said there were a couple of court dates when court officials and prosecutors could not reach him.

Donahue said he “has strong concerns about his ability to practice the law,” given his legal problems in the misdemeanor cases.

“Who knows what actions the state bar will take,” Donahue said.

Schaffer’s live-in girlfriend in Corona Del Mar filed for a restraining order against him in May 2022, alleging he struck her with his bike, “grabbed me by the (the) neck, hit me,” and threatened her, but she did not show up to court and the case was dropped, according to court records.

In a letter to a judge in the criminal case in July 2023, she said the two got into a dispute because she was “suspicious of him being unfaithful in our relationship.”

She said his bike “got caught to my knee and caused the scratch in that area,” which heightened “tension and a loud argument,” she wrote.

When Schaffer was packing up his belongings to leave the home she was concerned he would take some of her property and when police said she could only sort it out with a restraining order she filed for one but regretted it.

She asked for a restraining order in the criminal case removed “since I’ve never felt any threat, of any kind, from Mr. Schaffer and never will.”

Vining, who is in a management role, may have to hand off the trial to another attorney in his office.

Pickrell is accused of fatally shooting 17-year-old Danilo Ashton Arauz of Anaheim on Sept. 5, 2021.

The two were in a home at 1748 N. Holbrook Lane discussing the victim’s music while also handling a gun, according to preliminary hearing testimony from police.

Pickrell and Arauz had a dispute about the victim’s album of music which was titled after the block number he lived on. Pickrell lived a block over and it was apparently a territorial conflict, the witness told police, according to the testimony.

The two had apparently patched things up but at some point, the victim told the defendant he was not afraid as the gun was being pointed at him, then the weapon was fired, the witness told police, according to the testimony.

Initially, the witness thought it was an accident, but later concluded it was intentional, according to the testimony.

When Pickrell was arrested, police said Pickrell falsely claimed Arauz was the victim of a drive-by shooting. The victim was rushed to an area hospital, where he was placed on life support, but later died, police said.

While Pickrell was out on bail, the defendant’s mother called police on April 22, 2022, from a grocery store at 1741 N. Kellogg Drive in Anaheim, according to the preliminary hearing testimony. The defendant’s mother said she feared her son would kill her, police testified.

Pickrell was angry that he had been kicked out of St. Joseph’s Hospital in Orange earlier that day while his girlfriend was in labor giving birth to their child, police testified.

Pickrell allegedly threatened to kill his girlfriend’s mother, his girlfriend and their baby, police said in the preliminary hearing.