News
Arender defense enters evidence motions
District judge expected to rule early next week
The defense team for Shaun Earl Arender, the man accused of the Sept. 10 sexual assault and hanging death of 6-year-old Hanna Mack, entered a motion to preserve evidence connected with the case, a motion heard in a pre-trial hearing Monday.
It was a hearing that saw the defense call the county’s district attorney, sheriff and chief deputy to testify as Arender’s lawyers hammered local law enforcement for the Oct. 16 destruction of the two-car garage/barn at the Mack home that was torn down.
Mark Griffith, a Waxahachie attorney with Griffith & Associates, is defending Arender along with local attorney Kerri Anderson Donica.
Griffith decried the destruction of the crime scene, which was ordered by the property’s owner, as a hindrance to his ability to present a strong defense for his client.
“My hands have already been tied,” Griffith said about the building being torn down. “I don’t want my feet to be tied, too, and my eyes blindfolded.”
District Judge John Jackson heard the defense’s presentation on its requests, and is expected to issue a ruling sometime early next week.
The defense’s motion lists 10 areas of evidence to be preserved in the future, according to a copy of the motion obtained by the Daily Sun from the Navarro County District Clerk’s Office.
“To further protect the accused’s state and federal constitutional rights in connection with these allegations against the accused, he requests that none of the evidence seized in this investigation be destroyed, modified or altered without an order from this court, after notice to the State and to the defense of the intent to do so,” the motion states.
Assistant district attorney Vicki Foster argued that crime lab tests necessarily destroy some samples because the tests themselves use the sample material to gain a result.
“It’s an impossible request ... and one I can’t promise to uphold,” Foster said.
Griffith put the local law enforcement establishment on the stand during the hearing.
District Attorney R. Lowell Thompson testified he had no prior knowledge of the building’s destruction and read about it afterwards in an issue of the Daily Sun.
The defense asked Thompson what he would have done if he had heard of the demolition plans in advance.
“I would have asked if detectives had completed their investigation,” Thompson responded.
“You wouldn’t have thought it necessary to preserve the crime scene so I can do my investigation?” Griffith asked. “Do you think that’s fair?”
“I don’t know that I’m supposed to do your job for you, sir,” Thompson replied.
Thompson added that the defense had the opportunity to file a motion to preserve the crime scene before it was destroyed. Griffith noted how short a time it was between his appointment to the defense team and the building’s destruction.
But Thompson pointed out that local defense attorney Kerri Anderson Donica had been appointed shortly after Arender was charged with the Hanna Mack murder.
Sheriff Les Cotten and Chief Deputy Mike Cox both said they knew detectives investigating the case had completed their work on the crime scene. Both said they felt they didn’t have the right at that point to stop the destruction, since it is private property.
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Loyd Cook may be contacted via e-mail at lcook@corsicanadailysun.com
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