Delayed Justice

27th Circuit Court Chief Judge Anthony A. Monton ruled against the prosecution’s request for admission of other acts allegedly committed by accused murderers Matthew (Skip) and Paul Jones. They are charged in the 1989 murder of Shannon Marie Siders. The prosecution asked the court to allow testimony of others who have suffered at the hands of the Jones brothers. According to Judge Monton’s ruling, that would have come in under provision 404(b) “to introduce into evidence other crimes of acts of misconduct by the Jones brothers which occurred both before and after the murder of Siders.”

The judge offered his legal reasoning, taking up most of a single-spaced page. I’d be happy to share it with you, but he recaps all his logic with this:

Simply put, the proffered acts of misconduct and the charged offense of premeditated murder and not sufficiently similar to support an inference they that are a manifestation of a common plan, scheme or system. The circumstances surrounding these acts are too attenuated to conclude that they fit within the scope of an allowable purpose under MRE 404(b) to admit this evidence.

At best, any relevance between the other acts of misconduct and a proper purpose under MRS 404(b) is marginal, but the potential for unfair prejudice is great. The introduction of this evidence creates significant risk that jury may convict the defendant on an improper basis, i.e., bad character, instead of evidence proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant[s] committed first degree murder.

The prosecution could appeal that decision. I don’t know yet whether it has done so.

The next scheduled hearing will be the final pretrial on April 6, 2015 at 2 p.m. The trial is scheduled to begin April 20.