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Mertz trial to begin Sept. 30
Defense wanted delay until first of 2003
BY DAVE FOPAY
Staff Writer
CHARLESTON - The trial of murder suspect Anthony B. Mertz was scheduled on Monday to begin Sept. 30, though his attorneys wanted a delay until the first of next year.
Circuit Judge Dale Cini refused to give the defense the eight months it said it needed to prepare its case. He agreed with prosecution arguments that setting the trial around the end of September would allow enough time.
Mertz, 26, is charged with first-degree murder and other offenses in connection with the June 12 death of Eastern Illinois University student Shannon McNamara.
He's accused of breaking into McNamara's apartment at 1125 Fourth St., Charleston, choking her to death and slashing her body. He remains jailed without bond, and prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty if he's convicted.
Mertz's trial had been scheduled to begin Monday until a hearing earlier this month where Paula Phillips, lead defense attorney, said she couldn't be ready and needed another attorney to assist her. She said Public Defender Lonnie Lutz, who also represents Mertz, was too busy with his other cases to spend much time on Mertz's.
Cini then granted a delay and set Monday's hearing for the defense to report when it could go to trial.
On Monday, Phillips said Todd Berg, an attorney with the Illinois Appellate Defender's Office, was willing to join the case but only if given at least eight months to become familiar with it and to conduct investigations. After speaking with Berg, she added, she agreed the timing was "reasonable" and guessed that any other attorney who joined the case would probably want the same amount of time.
In response, State's Attorney Steve Ferguson said he understood the defense wanting more time but called an eight-month extension "out of bounds." He noted that Berg indicated that it could take eight months to do a social investigation of Mertz's background and then turn the information over to a psychologist, who would take more time to review it.
Cini apparently also agreed with Ferguson's argument that having the trial sooner than the defense wanted wouldn't affect Mertz's right to an adequate defense.
After Cini set the trial date, Phillips asked that he appoint another attorney to the case, as Berg said he would join the defense only with the eight-month delay.
The judge said he would contact the Capital Litigation Trust Fund, a state agency that helps the defense in death penalty cases and is paying Phillips, to see if any of its attorneys would be willing to join the case. He urged Phillips and Lutz to try to help with those arrangements and, at Ferguson's request, also said he'd ask if the fund would pay for more than one attorney.
Cini scheduled another hearing for Thursday to review the matter. He also said he planned for jury selection to begin Sept. 30 and for presentation of evidence to start a week later, Oct. 2.
- Contact Dave Fopay at [email protected].
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