Crime scene evidence, police questioning hinge on judge’s ruling

DOTHAN, Ala. (WTVY) - A judge will rule soon whether jurors should hear statements murder suspect Coley McCraney made to Ozark police following his 2019 arrest.

Dale County Circuit Judge William Filmore must also decide if he will allow those jurors to consider evidence taken from a car where police discovered the bodies of J.B. Beasley and Tracie Hawlett, 17-year-old girls who had been shot.

Attorneys David Harrison and Andrew Scarborough insist that investigators repeatedly rejected McCraney’s demands for an attorney as they interrogated him in the hours immediately following his Capital Murder arrest.

The attorneys claim because, in their opinion, officers violated McCraney’s constitutional rights his statements during the hours-long investigation should not be allowed.

The attorneys also want Filmore to ban evidence collected from the car where police discovered the bodies in 1999.

Harrison and Scarborough claim they cannot investigate the vehicle because police disposed of it over 15 years ago.

Per records, police released the Mazda 929 to an insurance company in about 2007, eight years after the murders.

Not until 2019 was McCraney arrested when DNA implicated him.

But Alabama Assistant Jimmy L. Thomas claims evidence taken from the car has been preserved and is available to defense attorneys and refutes claims that police deprived McCraney of his Miranda rights.

Filmore will hear these and other legal disputes on April 13, four days before the trial begins in Ozark.

Harrison and Scarbrough filed their defense motions as a 2022 trial date approached. Filmore declared a mistrial because not enough jurors could be seated, rendering those legal motions moot until now.

Thomas filed his opposition this week.

Watch JB and Tracie: The Teen Murders here.

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