SAN BERNARDINO - Two San Manuel officials will not have to testify in a hearing for a tribal member accused of violating probation after her conviction in a failed murder-for-hire plot, a judge ruled Friday.

An attorney for Stacy Barajas-Nunez, 26, subpoenaed more than a half-dozen people in defending her against the probation violation. She faces more than 20 years in prison if convicted.

Lawyers for the tribe argued that two of the people, a San Manuel general manager and a security officer, had sovereignty and are not subject to a state court subpoena.

San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge Michael Dest granted their motion to quash the subpoena.

Barajas-Nunez's attorney, Albert Perez Jr., said the ruling did not surprise him. He said it matched one handed down in an unrelated civil case involving the tribe.

He said he was prepared to proceed with the witnesses who remained, including several of the defendant's family members.

Barajas-Nunez was arrested last November during a trespassing dispute in the parking lot of the San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino. At the time she was on probation, and required to remain at her home, for an April 2008 conviction in the murder-for-hire scheme.

In that case, she was accused of seeking help from a man identified in court records as a Mexican Mafia drug kingpin to kill a Highland bar manager she was in a dispute with.

Along with her brother, Erik Barajas, Barajas-Nunez was sentenced to one year of home electronic monitoring, with terms that she contact no known felons. She also was convicted of being a gang member

On Friday, Dest said he expects the probation violation issue to be resolved at the next hearing, set for July 17. There have been six months of motions and continuances and Barajas-Nunez has remained jailed without bail.

"That is the date we're going to resolve this," Dest said. "One way or the other."

Reach Paul LaRocco at 951-368-9468 or plarocco@PE.com