Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler is requesting that Judge Sharon Holmes recuse herself from the case of the State of Oklahoma vs. Noe Cruz.
Court documents say that DA Kunzweiler is requesting the court disqualify the hearing of this case due to not sharing information from a conversation had in her chambers with the defendant.
Noe Cruz is on trial for first degree murder in the death of Yeison Gustavo Tacun. In December 2023, Tulsa Police said they arrived on scene and found the victim deceased with a gunshot wound to his chest.
Court documents say police spoke with three witnesses who said they were with Tacun at the Imperio Night Club near 21st Street and 145th Avenue. They say they stayed at the nightclub until it closed and then went to a taco truck near 21st Street and Garnett Road.
At the taco truck, court documents say the witnesses saw one man they had a verbal altercation with that night at the club in a fight with another Hispanic male they didn’t know.
According to the affidavit, the witnesses saw the two other men from the original altercation at the club run up and pull guns. Several gunshots were heard.
Court documents say detectives identified the three men, including Noe Cruz. Witnesses identified Cruz as the shooter. He was 17 at the time.
District Attorney Kunzweiler feels that in the case of Noe Cruz, Judge Sharon Holmes acted inappropriately by holding a private conversation with the defendant in her chambers without anyone else present following Cruz’s court appearance on March 27.
Court documents say that the defendant asked to speak to Judge Holmes about something ‘personal’ in open court. It maintains that no one else was in the room where the conversation happened.
After their conversation, court documents say Judge Holmes did not share what she and the defendant discussed.
“In this instance the relevant inquiry is this: Would District Judge Sharon Holmes’ behind closed doors private interaction with a murder defendant reasonably be questioned by the state of Oklahoma.? Absolutely,” read the court documents.
Court documents also show that Judge Holmes allowed the defendant to travel outside of the state after modifying, and eventually removing, his house arrest rules. The State of Oklahoma objected to this and did not give consent to allowing Cruz to travel out of Oklahoma.
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