A move to throw out an accused killer's murder case has been rejected by a Quad City judge, but the chance of his release, came down to the wire.
Andre Shaw, 28, of Rock Island was arrested September 8th. He is accused of shooting to death 17-year old Kion Lewis the day before after a botched gun sale that Lewis had nothing to do with.
Defense attorney Dan Dalton argued during a motion hearing Tuesday in Rock Island that prosecutors blew the 120 day deadline to try the murder case. He asked Judge Frank Fuhr to throw out the charges.
"If you're outside the 120 days, that's the ballgame. The law is clear. That is not an excuse, and does not allow the court to grant them an extension beyond the 120 days.", Dalton said.
Judge Fuhr rejected the motion, ordering attorneys to come up with a trial date within 21 days.
After court, Rock Island County States Attorney John McGehee said he believed the case would not be thrown out, because several of the prior delays would be attributed to the defense. When asked if it was risky to cut speedy trial deadlines so close, McGehee , who just took over the office in December said, other cases will be under review.
"We're going to be evaluating all the cases. I've talked to my staff, that we have be extremely careful with these kinds of issues. We did not want this guy to walk free, we want to bring this gentleman to trial", McGehee said.
In court, McGehee told Judge Fuhr his office had calculated the numbers by making a chart of the delays associated with the murder case, and determined there were days, if not weeks to spare before speedy trial kicked in.
"We did a chart. We believe we are under 120 days."