Macon murder indictment dismissed as suspects were headed for trial. Here’s why.
A Macon judge dismissed a murder case against two men who were on trial after Macon prosecutors raised concern that not enough grand jurors were involved in the men’s indictment.
Judge Jeffery Monroe ordered Monday that the indictment accusing Jordan Mullis and Jaylen Smith of murdering Montaveous Raines Jr. must be dismissed. In his order, he said that when the trial was set to start on Oct. 17, prosecutors noticed the indictment listed 15 grand jurors. Georgia law requires “no less than 16 nor more than 23 persons” on a grand jury.
Because of this, the judge declared the indictment “defective and void.”
The indictment said Mullis and Smith were charged with felony murder after allegedly arranging to meet Raines to sell marijuana and later shoot him in November 2021. A third suspect was named in the indictment, but their case was dismissed.
Raines was shot near a church in the 700 block of Greentree Parkway in the Lake Wildwood subdivision, according to the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office.
Past evidence issues in this case
Bobby Bearden and another attorney representing Mullis and Smith argued Raines was shot in self defense after he tried to rob the two.
Defense attorneys previously asked for the case to be dismissed, arguing that a recording from a camera located across the street from the shooting location was corrupted and couldn’t be viewed. The video was also recorded over by the home security company, Ring. The attorneys said the video needed to be shown at trial because it “will show that defendant acted in self-defense.”
A phone containing texts between Mullis and Raines also was destroyed, according to court testimony.
“This conscious wrongdoing has deprived the defendant of the opportunity and ability to provide a meaningful defense, and, has, in effect, shifted the burden to the defendant to provide that defendant is not guilty,” attorneys said in court documents. “This video evidence is crucial and necessary to allow defendant to have a fair trial.”
Attorneys further argued that Mullis and Smith’s rights were violated by the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office and Ring personnel to preserve the evidence and, without the video, the attorneys were “unable to obtain comparable evidence by other reasonably available means.”
Defense attorneys blamed prosecutors for these issues. In a prior ruling that wasn’t related to Monday’s dismissal, Monroe said the district attorney’s office and the sheriff’s office were responsible for the missing evidence and for not telling the court. Investigators were ordered to gather the evidence into one location.
It’s unclear what’s next for the case. District Attorney Anita R. Howard didn’t immediately respond to request for comment on whether the case could be presented to another grand jury, or whether her office would appeal Monroe’s ruling.
