A murder suspect may have her case dropped because police in Homewood, Alabama allegedly "threw away" the weapons used to commit the crime.
AL.com reported that attorneys for 31-year-old Alexandria Nicole Davis are asking for murder charges to be dropped after veteran Johnnie Will Anderson III, 30, was found strangled in his apartment.
Court records indicated that Anderson had a necktie and a dog leash around his neck when he was found. The cause of death was later determined to be strangulation.
Public Defenders Paul H. Rand and Sammie Shaw said the case against their client must be dropped because of the missing evidence.
"The dog leash and necktie are so critical to the defense as to make any trial without them fundamentally unfair," Rand said in a motion to the court. "There is no other way, other than by the items themselves, to determine who was in contact with the necktie and dog leash – especially not during the time between Ms. Davis left the apartment and the body was discovered."
Jefferson County Deputy District Attorney Jessica Hebson argued that the case could proceed.
In a hearing on Monday, Jefferson County Circuit Judge Alaric May said that it could take up to two weeks to rule on the motion to dismiss.
"This was probably, in my 30 years of practicing and on the bench, the most deplorable handling of evidence I have ever seen," the judge opined. "I have never seen anything like this."
"And I will say, heads need to roll, because this decedent -- I don't care who was, in fact, the murderer, he deserved much better than what Homewood gave him," May added. "It's put the state in a position they don't deserve to be in, as well as the defense... And nobody bears that brunt except for Homewood Police Department."
