ST. LOUIS – Three men who were charged with murder have been locked up for years awaiting trial. Now, the victim’s mom received a call that one or more suspects could be released.
Kim Alexander said her 24-year-old son Bobby Slack walked out of her home in north St. Louis July 4, 2017, and was shot dead 15 minutes later.
Three men were later charged with murder by the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office. Those suspects have been locked up for years awaiting trial.
“They could walk – I just immediately started crying because it just broke my heart that on a simple technicality. They could get out of jail?” Alexander said.
Alexander said she got the call from the police detective on the case. She’s waited years for justice for her son.
“Bobby was my only son – he was my baby. His life mattered you know, Bobby was a good guy. He had his own little construction company,” she said.
St. Louis police arrested three suspects eight months after the murder in 2018.
“She said we got em, we got em and I was at work at that time too. I just started crying and praying, you know. I was just thanking God for being able to have them in custody,” Alexander said.
Now, there’s a chance a judge could dismiss the murder case because of how long it’s taken to prosecute.
This month, defendant Arthur Ford’s public defender filed a “motion to dismiss for violation of Mr. Ford’s right to a speedy trial.”
The filing says “Ford has been confined 1,261 days” as of the beginning of September. “Court delays started in 2018,” and that “Ford filed for a speedy trial in March 2019 – with a ‘try by’ date of September 2019.”
The filing says “trial began Dec. 16, 2019,” but was “canceled because of a snowstorm.” “The defense says it thought the case would be tried by Jan. 30 of 2020,” but alleges it’s only seen “more unexplained delays.”
The defense says recent delays have occurred because a prosecutor quit – then another prosecutor quit.
“I am begging and pleading with the prosecutor’s office to be able to do their job, handle this paperwork, and get someone in court that is able to handle this case,” Alexander said.
The public defender’s office told Fox 2 that “while there have been a number of circuit attorneys assigned to this case, there are substantive reasons why it might get dismissed that do not have anything to do with the circuit attorney’s office.”
Prosecutors have an Oct. 12 deadline to respond to the courts – at which point a judge could decide to dismiss the case.