The preliminary hearing for Aimee Alexis Hidalgo, the former Orange County sheriff's deputy charged with voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of her fiancée Brittany Shaw, was continued on Friday, November 6, in Orange County, California — and Shaw's family used the court date to publicly reject the claim that the August 2025 shooting in their Tustin apartment was an accident, CBS LA reported.

Source: CBS LA

"An accident is one or two shots, not nine shots. My sister was shot nine times," Shaw's sister Janeae Parrish said outside court on Friday. Parrish also challenged the account that Hidalgo mistook Shaw for an intruder when she came home from walking the dog: "My sister, or Aimee, walked the dog every morning, so it's a very habitual thing that occurred, so to say it's an intruder is bogus," she said, as reported by CBS LA. Hidalgo has not been convicted of any offence; the charges against her are allegations that prosecutors must prove.

What prosecutors say happened on August 8, 2025

According to the Orange County District Attorney's Office, exterior Ring video footage shows 35-year-old Brittany Shaw leaving the couple's studio apartment in Tustin at about 5:10 a.m. on August 8, 2025, to walk her dog, and returning at about 5:20 a.m. Tustin police were called to the home in the 13000 block of Tustin East Drive at about 5:22 a.m. after a 911 call reporting a shooting, according to Tustin police and the Orange County Sheriff's Department.

Source: Orange County District Attorney's Office via MyNewsLA

Seconds after Shaw returned, prosecutors allege, Hidalgo shot her fiancée nine times. Shaw was struck in the torso, the right arm and the head, with the head wound fired at "close intermediate range" — less than eight inches from her head, according to the coroner's findings cited by prosecutors. Hidalgo called 911 and performed CPR, prosecutors said, but Shaw was pronounced dead after being taken to Orange County Global Medical Center.

In the days after the shooting, Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner told CBS LA that Hidalgo "was afraid of an intruder, thought there was an intruder" and shot Shaw. That explanation is the one Shaw's family confronted outside court on Friday, arguing that the couple's daily routine — Shaw walking the dog at the same early hour every morning — makes a mistaken-identity accident implausible. The family's statements are their position in a contested case; whether the shooting was deliberate, reckless or accidental is the question the court proceedings exist to decide.

Two women who both worked at the county jail

Both women worked in Orange County's jail system. Shaw, 35, was the correctional health services chief for the county Health Care Agency and had worked for six years, primarily at the Intake Release Center for newly booked inmates, according to the agency. Hidalgo, 28, had been a sheriff's deputy since 2021 and was assigned to the Orange County Jail, prosecutors said. The couple had been planning to marry in Mexico in November 2025, prosecutors said.

Charges, surrender and what Hidalgo faces

Months after the shooting, Hidalgo turned herself in to Tustin police in March 2026 after the district attorney charged her with one felony count of voluntary manslaughter and one felony enhancement for the personal use of a firearm, KABC reported. Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement when the charges were announced: "Human life is our most precious gift, and to lose the gift of life in your own home at the hands of someone you were engaged to is an indescribable tragedy."

Source: KABC via Archynewsy

If convicted on all counts, Hidalgo faces a maximum of 21 years in state prison, prosecutors said. She remains free on bail and has been on administrative leave from the sheriff's department since the shooting, CBS LA reported. The sheriff's department confirmed in August 2025 that the involved deputy had been placed on administrative leave while Tustin police investigated.

What a preliminary hearing decides — and what happens next

Friday's proceeding was a preliminary hearing, the stage in a California felony case at which a judge hears the prosecution's evidence and decides whether it is strong enough for the case to proceed toward trial. The hearing was continued — put over to a later date — rather than completed, so no judge has yet ruled on whether the manslaughter case will be held for trial, and no trial date exists yet. When the hearing resumes, prosecutors are expected to present the Ring footage timeline, the coroner's findings and the 911 and first-response evidence; the defence can cross-examine witnesses and argue the shooting was accidental. Awaaz Punjab will update this story when the continued hearing is held.