WHITE CO.—It was an eventful hearing this afternoon in White County for Danny K. Coston, the man accused of murdering two young White County people last August.
Coston, 37, of rural White County (Centerville), has been held on a $3 million bail since last August 31, after he was taken in for questioning and ostensibly admitted to authorities, including White County Sheriff Doug Maier, that he had shot both Jacob Wheeler, 22 (a neighbor of his) and Wheeler’s camping partner for the weekend, 17-year-old Jessica Evans. He is also charged with sexually assaulting Evans before he shot her, and with attempting to hide Wheeler’s body in a rural part of Wayne County to the north of the private Centerville campsite where he allegedly encountered the couple on the night of August 25/26, 2012.
The crimes shocked the area, but not nearly as much as the motions that have been put forth since that time, namely, Motion to Suppress Statements (specifically, the “confession” he made on the night of Aug. 31) and the motions for psych evaluations that would lead to a finding that Coston was unfit to stand trial…which would make the first motion moot, anyway.
Danny K. Coston
Today, the case took a step further away from that possibility when Judge Tom Foster entered an order finding “no bona fide doubt to fitness.” This means, in layman’s terms, that Coston will be able to assist in his own defense, and that the court, at least, doesn’t think he’s too mental to have known what he was doing on the night of the murders, despite the plethora of filings made by his high-powered St. Louis attorneys over the past couple of months, and featured in full in this article in the current print version/e-Edition. It is fascinating reading, what the attorneys were claiming, and you really need to read it to understand the major gyrations the defense is going through to try to keep this from going to trial, so pick up a copy at your nearest vendor or just click through the links to get your online membership.
So now the high-powered attorneys are pushing for suppression of statements, and a suppression hearing has been set for THREE DAYS in June: the 11th through the 13th. That’s how long it will be expected to take to go over the sheer volume of material the defense has filed, and make their meticulous arguments. This could mean the difference between plenty of evidence being presented in the killings…or a sanitized version of Danny Coston, which is something the Chicago-area attorneys were able to do for Julie Rea Kirkpatrick in 2006. So it does happen; be watching as we bring you full coverage at that time.
A jury trial date has been set, as well: August 20, 9 a.m. Check often for updates.