After oversights, a potential death penalty case restarts.

When Sammuel Ejaz was arrested last August in Salinas on suspicion of using a handgun to shoot four family members, two of them fatally, he told TV reporters he “never wanted to do this.” Prosecutors took that as a confession. Ejaz then pleaded not guilty to all counts.

From the outset of the criminal case, prosecutors kept the possibility of seeking the death penalty against him, and enhancement charges were filed with the death penalty in mind. This would be one of two death penalty cases in Monterey County in more than a decade.

While prosecutors have not officially announced their intent to seek the death penalty yet, their choice to backtrack and redo key hearings suggests they plan on it. On Sept. 16, prosecutors dismissed then refiled the case – meaning they have to redo the preliminary hearing, laying out their evidence against Ejaz – to correct for the fact that five court hearings were held without a court reporter present. That’s scheduled to begin Dec. 1.

“There were no secret meetings, it was just an oversight,” Monterey County Deputy District Attorney Doug Matheson says. “We discussed things in chambers and then we came out and put it on the record.”

In death penalty cases, all court hearings must be held on record, and not in a judge’s chambers without a court reporter. This creates a complete written record of the case, important in case there’s an appeal.

“That did not happen at the beginning,” Matheson says. “We don’t always do things exactly right in court, sometimes we make mistakes. Once we see that we tend to correct them.”

Ejaz’s attorney, Joy McMurtry, did not respond to requests for comment by the Weekly’s deadline.