Judge to Consider Unsealing Records in Salon Shooting Indictment

A hearing is set for this morning to determine whether to make public the  grand jury transcripts for the man accused of murdering eight people by opening fire in a Seal Beach salon last year.

An Orange County Superior Court judges is scheduled to hear motions on whether to unseal the transcripts from the grand jury proceedings in the death penalty trial of Scott Evans Dekraai.

It’s possible that the hearing will be rescheduled for another day, and it’s also likely that both the prosecution and defense will be opposed to unsealing the transcripts from the testimony that convinced a grand jury to indict Dekraai on multiple counts of murder.

However, there are those affected by the case who aren’t opposed to seeing the transcripts unsealed. Relatives of some of the victims told Patch they don’t see the need to keep the transcripts sealed as the painful details of the details of that day have already been made public.

The indictment process, which is done in secret, was done to speed up the trial. A grand jury indictment negates the need for a preliminary hearing, which can take months of preparation and several days of testimony leading up to the actual trial.

After listening to closed-door testimony, the grand jury indicted Dekraai on eight counts of murder with special circumstances and one count of attempted murder.  If convicted, Dekraai faces the death penalty.

Nine people were shot and eight died in the Oct. 12 shooting at Salon Meritage. The shootings, which took less than two minutes, produced the highest death toll of any mass murder in Orange County history.

.