No plea deal offered to Clovis girl accused in Caleb Quick killing. Murder trial set
There is no offer of a plea deal on the table for the accused getaway driver charged with murder in Fresno County court in the 2025 killing of 18-year-old Caleb Quick, prosecutors confirmed Friday.
Cassie Michael was 16 when she allegedly served as the driver on April 23, 2025, for her boyfriend, Byron Rangel, who was also 16 when he shot Quick in the back of the head at an arm’s length outside a McDonald’s where several teens were gathered, according to the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office.
A judge in May denied the DA’s request to try the teen girl as an adult.
Prosecutors considered whether to extend a settlement deal to the attorneys of Michael for a lesser crime but ultimately decided against it, Chief Deputy District Attorney Kendall Reynolds said during the hearing Friday before Judge Pahoua C. Lor at the Juvenile Justice Center.
“We believe this is a murder case,” Reynolds said in the courtroom.
Michael was scheduled for a July 28 murder trial at the Fresno County Superior Court in downtown Fresno. The attorneys have estimated it to last 10 days.
Along with the charge of murder, she faces an enhancement for allegedly being a co-participant in a crime using a gun.
The next hearing will be a murder trial but because it involves a defendant who was a minor during the crimes alleged, it will not use a jury. A judge will determine if the facts presented in the courtroom prove the teen was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, which is the same measure a jury would be asked to weigh.
The transfer hearing to determine if she should face adult trial featured a number of police officers and other officials who took the witness stand and read from reports. The juvenile murder trial is expected to see direct witnesses to the alleged crime, which could include teens who were also at McDonald’s on the day of the slaying, according Michael’s attorneys, Jeff Hammerschmidt and Sally Vecchiarelli.
Hammerschmidt has said Michael could take the stand in the trial, but that won’t be determined until the last day of the hearings.
A revenge killing over an alleged rape by Caleb Quick
Clovis police testified they believed the two 16-year-olds planned to kill Quick over the alleged rape he committed of another teen girl who was friends with Michael. Police said it happened after a party 10 days before the killing, and the alleged victim told police she drank too much and didn’t remember how the night ended.
Police and prosecutors alleged text messages hinted at a plan to seek revenge, according to testimony in the May trial.
Prosecutors allege Michael and Rangel arrived at the McDonald’s near Herndon and Willow avenues on the night of the killing for a post-church gathering that teens called “Fry Night.” They left together before Michael returned alone, which prosecutors allege was an attempt to create an alibi.
Rangel returned later in all black, including a hood and medical mask, police testified. He followed Quick into the parking lot and fired a silver .357 Smith & Wesson that he had inherited from his grandfather, police said.
That shooting was caught on surveillance video, as was Michael leaving the eatery and picking up Rangel in a nearby neighborhood, police said.
Rangel is set to return Sept. 1 for a transfer hearing to determine if he can be tried as an adult.
This story was originally published July 17, 2026 at 12:20 PM with the headline "No plea deal offered to Clovis girl accused in Caleb Quick killing. Murder trial set."
