EFFINGHAM CO.—We’ve been notified by Effingham County court officials that the hearing previously scheduled today for this morning in Justin DeRyke’s case has been moved to this afternoon.
Justin DeRyke, on the morning he was arrested, September 10, 2013
DeRyke, 22, is the uncle of 7-year-old Willow Long, who was found murdered in a remote area southwest of Watson this past September. DeRyke allegedly confessed to the deed, and has been held on First Degree Murder charges in Effingham County ever since.
This hearing, what was scheduled to be a final pre-trial conference before the jury trial set for April 7, has been pushed back on the schedule and DeRyke will appear at 1 p.m.
While authorities have issued NO further information on the case other than the time change, we who have been doing this for awhile have our antenna perked up…because ANY change in a scheduled appearance right before jury often means something significant. In many cases, it means a plea.
Again, there is NO further indication by the officials as to the nature of or cause of the change. But in nearly EVERY high-profile case we’ve been covering these past couple of years, that’s when a plea is announced.
A plea would bring the ordeal of the death of Willow Long to an end without having to put the remaining family through the grief of listening to the details. Conversely, a plea will also rob the public of a jury trial in which they hoped to learn the details in a story that doesn’t make a lot of sense; if in fact in a stipulation, the official story is read into the record, and the story as it was issued last fall is all that’s read. There are missing segments in the official story, and the public is keenly aware of this.
We’ll keep you posted as we learn more.
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