Post by CSA FD on Mar 4, 2008 14:07:12 GMT -5
Defense attorneys seek evidence in slaying of Kelsey Smith
Mar. 4, 2008
Attorneys for murder defendant Edwin Hall said prosecutors were withholding evidence that was favorable to their client, including information about another suspect seen driving a car similar to the victim’s.
Hall, 27, of Olathe, is charged with the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of Kelsey Smith, 18. The Shawnee Mission West High School graduate disappeared just after 7 p.m. June 2 from a Target store near 97th Street and Quivira Road in Overland Park. A few days later, her body was found about 20 miles away near Longview Lake in south Jackson County.
On Friday, Hall’s attorneys, Paul Cramm and Carl Cornwell, filed a motion accusing Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline of failing to give them that information and other evidence that they argue could help Hall’s defense. The attorneys are seeking sanctions in the case, possibly including continuance or dismissal of the case.
Also withheld, the defense argued, were 14 pages of an autopsy report, raw video surveillance footage that showed no one pushing Smith into her car as she left Target, and video surveillance that might place Hall at nearby Oak Park Mall just after Smith disappeared.
The victim’s mother, Missey Smith, said Monday that she remained confident about the way her daughter’s case was handled.
“The defense attorneys are just doing their job,” Smith said. “I remain 100 percent confident in what law enforcement did. … I think when all of the evidence is shown, there will be no doubt in anyone’s mind.”
Hall’s attorneys filed their motion under seal late Friday afternoon. However, the document remained in the public portion of the Johnson County court files Monday morning. The document later was removed from public view.
Cramm, Cornwell, the FBI and the Overland Park police declined to comment, citing evidentiary concerns and a gag order in the case. A district attorney’s spokesman said Kline was unavailable for comment because he was involved in a murder trial.
The evidence that Hall’s attorneys said was withheld:
•FBI documents about another man that a Grandview police employee identified as a possible suspect. On June 2, the documents stated, witnesses saw that man driving a car like Smith’s two hours after she disappeared. He also frequented a duplex less than three miles from where Smith’s body was found and sometimes was seen in a black pickup truck similar to the suspect vehicle.
According to one witness interviewed by the FBI, someone dropped that man off at the Grandview duplexes in a dark pickup truck about 3 a.m. on June 3, the morning after Smith disappeared.
•Raw security video from Target viewed by four Overland Park investigators early in the investigation. Attorneys said all four officers described Smith getting into her car and driving away undisturbed. One added that no one was seen around her vehicle while she was getting into the car. However, a later video compiled from several surveillance tapes produced images of what appeared to be someone shoving Smith into her car.
•Surveillance tapes from three stores at Oak Park Mall. Hall’s attorneys said the tapes would show someone resembling Hall at the mall just after Kelsey disappeared.
Copies of two of the tapes that Kline supplied were inoperable, and a third was damaged during the time frame that Hall claims he was in the mall, his attorneys said. According to the motion, security officials at one store said their video was fully functional when they gave it to Overland Park police.
•Fourteen pages of a Jackson County medical examiner’s report. The motion said the missing pages indicated that some marks on Smith’s body, thought to be wounds and abrasions, were caused by natural decomposition. That section also had information on time of death.
Mar. 4, 2008
Attorneys for murder defendant Edwin Hall said prosecutors were withholding evidence that was favorable to their client, including information about another suspect seen driving a car similar to the victim’s.
Hall, 27, of Olathe, is charged with the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of Kelsey Smith, 18. The Shawnee Mission West High School graduate disappeared just after 7 p.m. June 2 from a Target store near 97th Street and Quivira Road in Overland Park. A few days later, her body was found about 20 miles away near Longview Lake in south Jackson County.
On Friday, Hall’s attorneys, Paul Cramm and Carl Cornwell, filed a motion accusing Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline of failing to give them that information and other evidence that they argue could help Hall’s defense. The attorneys are seeking sanctions in the case, possibly including continuance or dismissal of the case.
Also withheld, the defense argued, were 14 pages of an autopsy report, raw video surveillance footage that showed no one pushing Smith into her car as she left Target, and video surveillance that might place Hall at nearby Oak Park Mall just after Smith disappeared.
The victim’s mother, Missey Smith, said Monday that she remained confident about the way her daughter’s case was handled.
“The defense attorneys are just doing their job,” Smith said. “I remain 100 percent confident in what law enforcement did. … I think when all of the evidence is shown, there will be no doubt in anyone’s mind.”
Hall’s attorneys filed their motion under seal late Friday afternoon. However, the document remained in the public portion of the Johnson County court files Monday morning. The document later was removed from public view.
Cramm, Cornwell, the FBI and the Overland Park police declined to comment, citing evidentiary concerns and a gag order in the case. A district attorney’s spokesman said Kline was unavailable for comment because he was involved in a murder trial.
The evidence that Hall’s attorneys said was withheld:
•FBI documents about another man that a Grandview police employee identified as a possible suspect. On June 2, the documents stated, witnesses saw that man driving a car like Smith’s two hours after she disappeared. He also frequented a duplex less than three miles from where Smith’s body was found and sometimes was seen in a black pickup truck similar to the suspect vehicle.
According to one witness interviewed by the FBI, someone dropped that man off at the Grandview duplexes in a dark pickup truck about 3 a.m. on June 3, the morning after Smith disappeared.
•Raw security video from Target viewed by four Overland Park investigators early in the investigation. Attorneys said all four officers described Smith getting into her car and driving away undisturbed. One added that no one was seen around her vehicle while she was getting into the car. However, a later video compiled from several surveillance tapes produced images of what appeared to be someone shoving Smith into her car.
•Surveillance tapes from three stores at Oak Park Mall. Hall’s attorneys said the tapes would show someone resembling Hall at the mall just after Kelsey disappeared.
Copies of two of the tapes that Kline supplied were inoperable, and a third was damaged during the time frame that Hall claims he was in the mall, his attorneys said. According to the motion, security officials at one store said their video was fully functional when they gave it to Overland Park police.
•Fourteen pages of a Jackson County medical examiner’s report. The motion said the missing pages indicated that some marks on Smith’s body, thought to be wounds and abrasions, were caused by natural decomposition. That section also had information on time of death.