MACON, Ga. — Lawyers for a Macon murder suspect want his charges thrown out due to lost evidence.
A judge said no, but did say both the District Attorney's Office and the Sheriff's Office mishandled the evidence. District Attorney for the Macon Judicial Circuit, Anita Howard, explained that this will likely delay the case even more.
"There was a motion that had been filed by the defense to quash an indictment," Howard said.
This motion came because the defense couldn't review all the evidence in the case. Howard said it's called a discovery violation.
"The judge actually denied their motion, but there was a live discussion around the evidence they have yet to be able to obtain.”
That discussion was focused on Senior Assistant District Attorney Dawn Baskin.
"The courts make no distinction between the District Attorney’s office and the sheriff’s office. What the sheriff’s office has, the District Attorney’s office is assumed to know about, and that was the point I think being made by the court today," Baskin said.
Howard described the evidence as doorbell video collected by investigators against two men accused of murdering Montaveous Raines in 2021.
"The investigator on the case said that it was actually on a hard drive. That hard drive we have been told is inoperable. We have asked the sheriff’s office to look in other areas to see possibly is they can locate it and they’ve been doing that,” Howard said.
The investigator is no longer with the sheriff’s office, but Howard was told there's a plan B.
"They mentioned in court that there were about a 173 emails that they were going to be looking through that belonged to this investigator to see if that footage is in one of those emails," Howard said.
DA Howard wants to avoid this situation in the future, so she created a first line of defense called the Intake Investigative Unit.
They collaborate with the sheriff’s office to collect and preserve evidence for a case.
Jaylen Smith, Jordan Mullis, and Mia Hawkins were all arrested in connection to Raines' 2021 murder. Hawkins' case is closed after she plead guilty.
The District Attorney's Office released the following statement about the Tuesday hearing:
"The integrity of all criminal cases in my office is the utmost priority to me. This recent situation in which particular evidence was damaged and not properly turned over to prosecutors is concerning to both the Sheriff and to me.
Today, I announced the formation of a task force to review all murder cases and their collected evidence, that occurred prior to the formation of the District Attorney’s in house Intake Investigative Unit, which was formed in the third quarter of 2022. Review priority will begin with the cases involving a former Bibb County Sheriff's Deputy. Along with the Sheriff’s Office, my team will audit these cases to ensure all evidence has been properly provided to prosecutors so that we, in turn, can provide the required discovery to the defense attorneys.
Under the law, prosecutors are responsible for evidence in the possession of police even if we are unaware that it exists. A case cannot be investigated and prosecuted in the proper manner without a strong partnership between law enforcement and the District Attorney's Office, particularly for the serious violent felony crimes. A prosecutor's reliance on law enforcement's investigation is, therefore, both reasonable and necessary. In the vast majority of cases, things operate as they should. When they do not, as in this case, we will always address the situation with law enforcement and do what is necessary to minimize those errors in the future."