Murder suspect seeks own trial
July 14, 1993
By Bartholomew Sullivan
Defense lawyers for one of three suspects in a West Memphis triple-slaying have asked a judge to grant their client a separate trial.
Lawyers for Charles Jason Baldwin, 16, want murder charges against him heard in a trial other than the one in which co-defendants Michael Wayne Echols and Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr., both 18, would be tried.
Prosecutor John Fogleman declined comment.
Baldwin's lawyers, Paul N. Ford and George Robin Wadley Jr. of Jonesboro, argue in a legal brief that Misskelley's statements to the police constitute ''inadmissible hearsay."
Misskelley told police he helped drag one of the three 8-year-old victims into the woods and watched as Echols and Baldwin brutalized them. Misskelley told police he did not participate in sodomizing or murdering the second- graders.
The bodies of Michael Moore, Christopher Byers and Steve Branch were found in a woods behind their homes in May.
According to Baldwin's legal brief, state prosecutors must inform the court of whether they plan to use Misskelley's statement in court. Arkansas's court rules require that, if the prosecution plans to use a statement of a co- defendant, it must be admitted into evidence in a joint trial or the state must agree to delete prejudicial references to their client.
No date for a hearing on the motion has been scheduled.
July 14, 1993
By Bartholomew Sullivan
Defense lawyers for one of three suspects in a West Memphis triple-slaying have asked a judge to grant their client a separate trial.
Lawyers for Charles Jason Baldwin, 16, want murder charges against him heard in a trial other than the one in which co-defendants Michael Wayne Echols and Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr., both 18, would be tried.
Prosecutor John Fogleman declined comment.
Baldwin's lawyers, Paul N. Ford and George Robin Wadley Jr. of Jonesboro, argue in a legal brief that Misskelley's statements to the police constitute ''inadmissible hearsay."
Misskelley told police he helped drag one of the three 8-year-old victims into the woods and watched as Echols and Baldwin brutalized them. Misskelley told police he did not participate in sodomizing or murdering the second- graders.
The bodies of Michael Moore, Christopher Byers and Steve Branch were found in a woods behind their homes in May.
According to Baldwin's legal brief, state prosecutors must inform the court of whether they plan to use Misskelley's statement in court. Arkansas's court rules require that, if the prosecution plans to use a statement of a co- defendant, it must be admitted into evidence in a joint trial or the state must agree to delete prejudicial references to their client.
No date for a hearing on the motion has been scheduled.
