Mediation set in Dias murder case

SANDPOINT — Defense counsel for a Bonner County man charged with first-degree murder is moving to push back pretrial filing deadlines to accommodate civil mediation to resolve the case, 1st District Court records show.

Mediation in the case against Fabian Rebeterano is scheduled for May. Rebeterano’s Coeur d’Alene attorney, Joseph R. Sullivan, filed the motion on Wednesday and it was granted on Friday, court documents indicate.

Rebeterano, 40, is free on reduced bond of $50,000 while the case is pending. He is accused of shooting of Blas Salvadore Alonzo “Duke” Dias at the threshold to Dias’ apartment at the Meandering Moose on Aug. 6, 2018. Rebeterano is further charged with unlawfully possessing a .22-caliber pistol due to a methamphetamine possession conviction in Bonner County in 2016.

Rebeterano is pleading not guilty to the charges. A pretrial hearing in the case is set for July 19 and a jury trial is planned for August.

A Bonner County grand jury indicted Rebeterano for the slaying of Dias, 34, earlier this month.

At the time of killing, Dias was awaiting trial for allegedly choking and punching a 16-year-old girl at his apartment. The teen, according to court documents, is the daughter of Rebeterano.

Another juvenile in the apartment at the time of the July 14, 2018, incident told Sandpoint Police that Dias held the 16-year-old against the wall by her throat and threw her down, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Civil mediation was used to bring a resolution to a Bonner County murder case against Keith Allen Brown, who was accused of shooting and killing Leslie Carlton Breaw at Priest Lake in 2007. Brown entered Alford pleas to voluntary manslaughter and accessory to grand theft and was ordered to serve a 15-year prison sentence. Brown, 58, is serving his sentence at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, according to the Idaho Department of Correction. His sentence satisfaction date is listed as March, 19, 2022.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.