WHITE CO.—A hearing that lasted from 1:40 to 1:46 p.m. today, January 9, 2013, did nothing but stretch out an already-interminible wait for friends and family of two young White County people who were murdered last summer.
The hearing set today for a motion to suppress statements made by the man authorities have accused of committing the crime, Danny K. Coston, did nothing but set another court date, this for March 23 at 1:30 p.m., all in six minutes’ time.
It’s unclear what exactly will be taken up at that date, but it doesn’t look to be the motion to suppress, as was filed months ago by Coston’s then-public defender, Jerry Crisel, who sought to have statements Coston made on the night of August 31, 2012, suppressed from the evidence, as, he claimed, they’re in violation of Coston’s Fifth Amendment right of not incriminating himself.
Coston has been jailed since Aug. 31 in the shooting deaths of Jessica Evans, 17, and Jacob Wheeler, 22. Coston is not only charged with multiple counts of First-Degree Murder, but in the sexual assault of Evans, and concealing a homicidal death in the case of Wheeler, whose body was removed from a remote location on the Little Wabash River in the Centerville area of White County, and found in an even more remote area north of Burnt Prairie nearly a week after the couple’s deaths.
Attorney Scott Rosenblum of St. Louis was actually there at the hearing today instead of one of his law partners, which occurred last November. Rosenblum is said to be the go-to guy for those accused of high-profile crimes such as murder, rape, and disposal of bodies. However, he was somewhat low-key today at the hearing, and spoke very little except to answer Judge Tom Foster’s questions about whether Coston understood that his speedy trial clock is stopped, and that Coston has had adequate time to confer with his attorney over what it means to keep continuing the hearings instead of proceeding on to trial and setting a trial date. State’s attorney Denton Aud advised that discovery paperwork had been provided the defense. No one had any objection to setting a next pre-trial conference date of March 27 at 1:30 p.m., and Coston was sent back to the White County jail, where he’s being held on $3 million bail ($300,000 cash bond) and has been since Aug. 31.
The courtroom was once again packed, a huge number of Coston supporters present and being among the first to leave. But they didn’t go outside the courthouse; instead, they stayed in the upstairs atrium, where they conferred with Rosenblum and his waif of an assistant. Wheeler and Evans family and friends were the last to leave the courtroom and gathered on the parking lot as they have during previous hearings.
Coston’s girlfriend, Candice Brown, was present and very, very pregnant today. She, too, had a hearing this morning at 9 a.m. Accompanied by her court-appointed attorney Matt Vaughan of Fairfield, she appeared in front of new Judge Jo Beth Weber (who was in the courtroom for a brief time this afternoon) only to have her pretrial hearing reset for Feb. 13 at 9 a.m. Brown is charged with Obstruction of Justice in Coston’s case, wherein authorities say she lied about Coston’s whereabouts on the night the two young people were murdered.
For as high-profile as all of it is, it looks to go the way many downstate murders do: dragging endlessly through the court system as possible deals for sentencing are made once the investigative angle is hammered out and the defense sees what the state has against it. However, with Rosenblum in the picture, this one may have an actual twist, in that it might really go to trial. The state is prepared for that: An official request for assistance from the appellate prosecutor’s office was reportedly put in today, and as reported last November, it appears the state is going to send in the pit bull of prosecution, Ed Parkinson, who will team up with Aud and present the state’s case against Coston. If it actually goes to trial, it will be one mighty show, worthy of cameras in the courtroom…which Illinois now allows, and which is slowly working its way into the Second Judicial Circuit.
We’ll give more coverage in the print version, which will be on stands in White and surrounding counties no later than a week from today (Wednesday, Jan. 16). For those of you reading outside of the area of the print version, you can always get an e-Edition membership, which enables you to read all articles in the print version right here in the comfort of your own computer or hand-held device. And an e-Edition gets you all the previous online versions of Disclosure, meaning you can read every print offering of the Coston case from the day it appeared in September 2012. Give it a try. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to re-up in another month! But we think you’ll like it…thanks for reading.
Danny Coston, now sporting a full beard instead of a goatee, being escorted across the parking lot from the jail to the courthouse by deputy and new coroner Chris Marsh.
Attorney Scott Rosenblum from the St. Louis area, making his way back to his car after the six-minute hearing.