Trial set for manslaughter case

ALAMOSA — District Judge Michael Gonzales on Tuesday scheduled a four-day trial beginning October 10 for Kelvin Ruybal, 34, one of the codefendants in the Floyd Dale McBride murder.

Ruybal was charged with multiple counts including manslaughter, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree kidnapping in connection with the death of McBride, 52, last summer. Ruybal has pleaded not guilty.

Judge Gonzales said on Tuesday he had until October 18 to schedule Ruybal’s trial within the six-month speedy trial time period to which Ruybal is entitled.

Ruybal, who remains in custody, appeared before the judge in district court with attorney David Roth who also represents Ruybal in a motor vehicle theft case. The judge scheduled a trial on that case for January 10-12 and scheduled a pre-trial status conference on both cases for September 19.

Roth said his client was willing to waive his speedy trial right on the motor vehicle case, so the judge scheduled that trial for early 2018.

Regarding the June 2016 McBride murder, Ruybal is alleged to have helped move McBride when he was still alive and bury him after he bled to death from a gunshot wound inflicted by Lonnie Cooper, 43, who has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

According to testimony during Ruybal’s county court preliminary hearing, Ruybal was not present for the actual shooting but was summoned by Cooper afterwards to help move McBride from the residence where he was shot to another residence. After McBride died, Ruybal allegedly transported him again, this time to Conejos County where Ruybal helped bury him. McBride’s body was later dug up and reburied in a remote area of Costilla County, but Ruybal was not part of that second burial.