Alissa Huerta remains jailed without bond as her defense reviews evidence that includes video and recovered cellphone material.
CALDWELL, Idaho — The first major evidentiary hearing for an 18-year-old accused of deliberately running over 19-year-old Jade Aliyah Ramirez has been delayed until Sept. 23 after defense attorneys said they received a substantial amount of discovery to review.
Alissa Mae Huerta remains in custody without bond on a first-degree murder charge stemming from Ramirez’s July 26 death in a Nampa parking lot. The postponement puts the focus on the evidence assembled since police initially responded to what was reported as a pedestrian collision. Investigators later said the strike was intentional, relying in part on video, interviews and deleted cellphone recordings. Huerta has not been convicted, and the state’s allegations have yet to be tested through a trial.
At the preliminary hearing, prosecutors are expected to present enough of their case for a judge to decide whether the first-degree murder charge should advance. That is different from deciding guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The proceeding nevertheless represents an important early test because it gives the court its first opportunity to evaluate the evidentiary basis for the felony prosecution. Huerta’s defense sought additional time after receiving the recent discovery, and the hearing that had been scheduled earlier was moved to Sept. 23 at 8:30 a.m.
The court has also limited public electronic access to that next proceeding. Huerta’s attorney objected to media recording of future court appearances. A judge ruled there will be no recording at the preliminary hearing and no Zoom access, according to local reporting. The restrictions concern how the proceeding may be observed or recorded; they do not determine the strength of the state’s case. Huerta will continue to face the murder charge while her lawyers review the material provided by prosecutors.
The discovery traces back to an investigation that began before dawn July 26. Nampa police were dispatched at about 4:20 a.m. to the 1500 block of Caldwell Boulevard after receiving a report that a pedestrian had been hit by a vehicle. Officers found Ramirez with life-threatening injuries. She was transported to a hospital and later died. The vehicle had left before police arrived, and authorities initially said they did not have enough evidence to charge a person in connection with the collision.
Investigators then learned that a confrontation had preceded the impact. A probable cause affidavit, as described in subsequent news reports, alleges Huerta and Ramirez had been engaged in a months-long dispute involving the father of Ramirez’s child. Police said the conflict began in February after Ramirez confronted Huerta about an intimate relationship. Investigators alleged the women exchanged threatening texts and voice messages before events culminated in a planned meeting involving Huerta, her sister and Ramirez in the parking lot.
According to the affidavit, Huerta said her sister was supposed to fight Ramirez. Ramirez allegedly arrived with a baseball bat and struck the Honda Huerta was driving, damaging the windshield and breaking the driver’s-side window. Huerta told detectives she attempted to get away and did not deliberately steer toward Ramirez. Those details provide part of the defense-side account contained in the investigation and are important because they put a claimed attempt to escape immediately before the fatal vehicle movement.
Detectives said footage from the scene led them to a different conclusion. Their description of the video says the Honda’s front bumper struck Ramirez in the legs and that she went onto the hood. Police allege the vehicle continued and accelerated as it maneuvered around a nearby parking-lot light pole before Ramirez was pulled beneath it. Investigators concluded that the strike was intentional. The video itself, its full context and the interpretation offered by investigators will be issues the defense can challenge as the case proceeds.
Digital evidence from Huerta’s cellphone is another part of the discovery. Police say investigators recovered deleted Snapchat recordings made after the collision. In one recording quoted in the affidavit, Huerta allegedly said, “I ran her over, though. I’m not going to lie.” A second recording reportedly contained another reference to having run Ramirez over. Investigators cited those statements after Huerta had told detectives she did not intentionally aim at Ramirez. The recordings may therefore become central to arguments over her state of mind and the credibility of her earlier explanation.
The distinction is legally significant. Investigators can allege that the video and phone material establish an intentional act, but the court process requires prosecutors to support the charge with evidence that meets the required legal standards at each stage. Huerta’s acknowledgment that Ramirez was run over, if admitted into evidence, does not erase every question about intent, nor does the state’s characterization of the footage automatically resolve those questions. The defense will have an opportunity to contest the prosecution’s evidence and interpretation.
Police arrested Huerta on July 28, two days after the collision. The arrest marked the point at which investigators publicly moved away from the uncertainty surrounding the original pedestrian-struck report and said they believed a homicide had occurred. Authorities described the case as an isolated incident and said there was no continuing danger to the public. Since then, the center of activity has moved from the Nampa Police Department to the courtroom, where discovery and procedural disputes are shaping the pace of the case.
Ramirez was 19 and lived in Caldwell, as does Huerta. Publicly reported court records portray their conflict as personal and sustained rather than random, but prosecutors have not yet proved a motive or established the state’s entire narrative in court. The reported threatening messages, planned fight, alleged bat damage, vehicle footage and Snapchat recordings provide different pieces of the confrontation. Their weight, sequence and reliability are matters that remain subject to judicial review.
For now, the most immediate development is procedural rather than a new finding about what happened in the parking lot. Huerta remains jailed without bond while her attorneys examine the discovery, and the first-degree murder allegation remains unresolved. The Sept. 23 preliminary hearing is expected to determine whether the case has sufficient evidentiary support to move forward toward later proceedings. Until then, the competing interpretations of the video, phone recordings and events before the collision remain allegations in an unfinished criminal case.
Author note: Last updated September 8, 2026.