Attorneys ask St. Louis judge to toss murder cases over evidence issues
ST. LOUIS — Defense attorneys on Friday asked a St. Louis judge to throw out murder cases in the death of a man and his 7-year-old daughter because prosecutors still haven’t turned over key pieces of evidence with the trial date just days away.
Javonn Nettles, 30, and Andre Anderson, 27, watched in handcuffs Friday as their attorneys asked the judge to force the state to turn over evidence they are legally required to provide or dismiss the case altogether.
Terry Niehoff, Nettles’ lawyer, said the delays are making it nearly impossible to prepare a defense.
“It’s not right,” Niehoff said in court. “This is not some game. These people’s lives are at stake.”
The hearing reignited criticism that has plagued Circuit attorney Kimberly M. Gardner’s office for years. Nettles’ charges were already dismissed and refiled once last year on the eve of trial — a common maneuver by Gardner’s office when prosecutors are not ready for trial.
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Now, the pair’s lawyers say their clients have been unable to receive the defense to which they’re legally entitled because prosecutors are dragging their feet in turning over evidence including search warrant applications and a list of witnesses.
Javonn Nettles
Nettles and Anderson were arrested in April and May 2021, and their murder cases have been pending since.
The prosecutor in their cases, Chris Desilets, pledged Friday to submit a witness list but said he had already turned over all the evidence he had. He blamed police for failing to turn over the search warrants.
“I can do what I can for what I have,” he said. “If it’s not there, I can’t pull it.”
As of last month, Desilets was handling at least 108 cases, including 45 murder or manslaughter cases — a number experts and former prosecutors say is untenable.
Nettles and Anderson are accused of shooting and killing 7-year-old Dmyah Fleming and her father, 26-year-old Darrion Rankin-Fleming, in the 4000 block of Laclede Avenue, in the city’s Central West End.
Family members said the Flemings were inside their car getting ready to drop Dmyah off at her grandmother’s home when they were shot multiple times.
Police said Anderson told investigators he was home at the time of the killings, but cellphone records showed he was in the area of the shooting at the time. Nettles also said he was elsewhere, but his cell phone records also indicated otherwise.
Nettles’ case was set to go to trial last July, but Niehoff argued he still hadn’t received key evidence. Then, just two days before the trial was set to begin, prosecutors dismissed and refiled the case.
“This pattern has been going on and on and on this whole case,” Niehoff said. “They’re not giving me stuff they know exists.”
Desilets, the prosecutor, said investigators on the case, including one who’s left the police department, just hadn’t turned over their search warrants, so he couldn’t provide it.
But T.J. Matthes, who represents Anderson, said it was the assistant circuit attorney‘s job to get them.
Andre Anderson was charged in the Jan. 24, 2021 killings of a 7-year-old girl and her father. Image courtesy of the St. Louis Police Department
“The prosecutor is responsible for records that law enforcement has,” he said.
Niehoff said the evidence is essential for providing the men with a fair trial. Both are charged with two counts of first-degree murder, which would automatically put them in prison for life if they’re convicted.
The judge said he will decide on the motions to dismiss next week.
But at the end of Friday’s hearing, Desilets told the judge the disagreement might be moot. Nettles and Anderson’s trials are set to begin on April 10, and Desilets has another murder trial, which has been pending longer, scheduled to begin on the same day.
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