The man accused of slingshot attacks on Highway 101 has spent a year in jail as case inches along.

Almost one year ago, the California Highway Patrol summoned media to a press conference at their Salinas headquarters. In those pre-pandemic days, one of the biggest news stories going was the repeat attacks on cars traveling along Highway 101 through Prunedale, and press from all over Northern California, as well as a number of local politicians, assembled to hear the news: A Los Banos man named Charles Kenneth Lafferty had been arrested and would eventually be charged with 79 felony counts alleging he used a slingshot and marbles to fire on unsuspecting drivers.

In all, 69 such attacks on vehicles – including a CHP patrol car and a school bus carrying Carmel High School athletes en route to a game – were reported between February 2019 and Jan. 11, 2020.

A $15,000 reward offered in the case, including $5,000 from County Supervisor John Phillips, has gone unclaimed.

Lafferty was arrested on Jan. 22, 2020. Since then, he has remained in Monterey County Jail and little has happened with his case publicly.

On Jan. 5, though, in Monterey County Superior Court, Lafferty agreed to waive his preliminary hearing, a process in which the prosecution presents the basis of its case and a judge decides if there’s enough evidence to proceed to trial.

If the case can’t be resolved through a plea agreement, Deputy District Attorney Matt L’Heureux says, the case will proceed to trial.

“As part of any criminal case, plea negotiations are standard, and both sides participate, and the judge participates,” L’Heureux says.

Little is known about Lafferty, whom authorities described as a handyman with at least a part-time residence in Monterey County. He’s been mostly trouble free in jail, officials say, with only one instance of saying “inappropriate things” to a deputy during an altercation.

A pre-trial hearing is scheduled in Lafferty’s case on Jan. 19.