Guam – The case against the nine DOC detainees implicated in the murder of fellow detainee Manson Ernest remains tolled as the court must hear a multitude of motions pending before the court.
With nine defendants named in the murder case, the court has faced several challenges from the logistics to accommodate all parties involved in the case to the struggle of appointing legal counsel who don’t bare a conflict of interest.
In response to these struggles the court has defacto severed the defendants for pre-trial hearings, as a result of safety issues and to avoid a packed court room.
In court today the first group of defendants appeared. They included Benster Benjamin, Isler Miller, Jimmy Moses Hadely and Marvin Rechim.
Superior Court Judge Anita Sukola reiterated the court struggle noting that the case would continue to be tolled as there are attorneys “mulling” over whether or not they are able to represent some of the defendants.
She stated that she would give the attorneys until April 30th to make the determination at which time she would then proceed with setting dates to address the motions before the court.
Meanwhile, the government made note of their motion to order the collection of hair and blood samples from each of the defendants.
According to Assistant Attorney General Jeremy Kemper, the government has evidence from the crime scene and the victim Manson Ernest’s body, however, they have not been able to send it off to the FBI for testing because they do not have samples from the defendants to compare it to.
Tomorrow the second group of defendants will appear before the court. They include, Albert Santos, Jeremiah Isezaki, Andrew Rios Jr. Vimson Menisio, and A-Last Simiron.
