The defense attorney for Angel de Jesus Rivera-Sanchez, the man accused of murdering a Habersham County woman last October, sought a continuance in the case Tuesday in Habersham County Superior Court. Senior Judge Jeffery Malcolm, hearing no objection from the District Attorney, agreed to the continuance. No new date for trial was specified.
Victim found near Walmart
On October 28, 2024, GBI agents arrested Rivera-Sanchez, then 24, in Atlanta on charges of kidnapping related to the disappearance of 25-year-old Minelys Zoe Rodriguez-Ramirez. Rodriguez-Ramirez’s body was found the following day in a ravine near the Cornelia Walmart, and she appeared to have been shot to death. Rivera-Sanchez was subsequently charged with murdering her, and, denied bond, he has been held at the Habersham County Detention Center ever since.
Mountain Judicial Circuit Public Defender Jeanne C. Tiger told Malcolm Tuesday that “there’s lots of discovery” in the case, and Assistant District Attorney Meredith Davis did not object to the delay. Davis declined to comment further. Tiger, asked in court what the new date for trial might be, simply said she did not know.
A member of the D.A.’s staff said a court calendar for 2026 would issue soon from the Court, implying that the new date for the murder trial would be on it.
The defendant appeared on screen during the hearing, broadcast from the Detention Center, but he did not speak. News reports have said he is an undocumented immigrant, but the D.A.’s office did not confirm that as of midday Tuesday.
Legal process plays out
Discovery, in legal proceedings, is the process by which the prosecution and defense sift through and exchange evidence. It is “the formal process of exchanging information between the parties about the witnesses and evidence they will present at trial,” according to an American Bar Association website. “Discovery enables the parties to know before the trial begins what evidence may be presented. It is designed to prevent ‘trial by ambush,’ where one side doesn’t learn of the other side’s evidence or witnesses until the trial, when there is no time to obtain answering evidence.”
As reported in May, Tiger is seeking to quash a possible confession, and also to exclude evidence possibly found when a search warrant was executed involving the defendant’s possessions. Tiger also made other motions in connection with the case. Law enforcement authorities have not confirmed that there was either a confession or a search of the defendant’s home.
Local and national news reports, which have appeared in news media including The New York Post, Fox News, Newsweek magazine, People Magazine. CBS News, and a newspaper in the victim’s native Puerto Rico, have made no reference to an alleged confession.
Rodriguez-Ramirez had TikTok following
Rodriguez Ramirez’s mother told Now Habersham previously that Rodriguez-Ramirez said she was going out the night of October 22 to sell someone a photo. She texted her fiancé that evening, but that was the last communication reported. Her family reported her missing the following day.
Rodriguez-Ramirez, a single mother known as “Mimi,” shared Spanish language videos about fashion, exercise, and other topics on TikTok, garnering more than 50,000 followers.
Now Habersham previously requested Rodriguez-Ramirez’s autopsy report from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Medical Examiner’s office. The GBI declined the request, writing, “…the autopsy report will not be available for release or viewing since the investigation is still open.”
