ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis judge sanctioned St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner’s office twice for not turning over evidence in a timely manner to the defense in the years leading up to a 15-year plea deal with a double homicide suspect Tuesday.
Demariol Byrd had charges pending against him for the murders of Clarence White and Kelly Maddock for more than 2 and a half years.
In May 2020, police found White, 43, and Maddock, 39, shot and killed inside a home in the 4400 block of Maffitt Avenue in the Ville neighborhood.
“To allow the Circuit Attorney’s Office to blatantly violate the discovery rules and then argue that those continuances were for ‘good cause’ is inappropriate, unjustified and antithetical to the goals of the Interstate Agreement on Detainers,” wrote Judge Timothy Boyer in his motion issuing sanctions against Gardner’s office.
The Interstate Agreement on Detainers, or IAD, gives federal prisoners the right to request to be tried for any unresolved charges in other states. At some point after Byrd was charged with the homicides, he was sentenced to 61 months in federal prison on unrelated charges.
Byrd’s attorneys filed motions for sanctions against Gardner’s office claiming despite the years that had passed on the murder charges, prosecutors handed over for the first time six documents containing 54 pages of new information and a CD of cellphone records from the victim’s phone just seven days before the trial was to begin in November.
Supreme Court rules require the state to disclose discovery within 14 days of a request from the defense. Byrd’s defense made its original request on July 20, 2020, more than two years before it was disclosed.
Byrd’s defense also asked for additional discovery in January 2022, which included reports that weren’t turned over until that week before trial, according to court documents.
He also asked for cellphone records in April 2022, which weren’t turned over for seven months, according to the documents.
Judge Timothy Boyer sanctioned Gardner’s office and continued the trial to Jan. 3 from November 2022, and ordered Gardner’s assistant circuit attorney on the case to give Byrd’s defense the arrest report.
“On Jan. 3, while the jurors were being collected by the jury supervisor, the defense informed the court that they still do not have the arrest report,” Boyer wrote. “At first, the Assistant Circuit Attorney said no arrest report existed. However, after a computer search, the Assistant Circuit Attorney found the arrest report wherein the defendant was arrested one day after the alleged murder took place and was arrested with one of the state’s key witnesses, who at the time made potentially exculpatory statements about the defendant.”
In response to the defendant’s motion to dismiss the charges, Gardner’s office argued that the continuances Boyer granted should be considered to be for “good cause shown,” according to Boyer’s ruling.
“The court finds this argument wholly unpersuasive,” Boyer wrote. “Discovery in this case was timely requested by the defendant, and, despite numerous requests, not timely disclosed by the Circuit Attorney’s Office. Not only was the discovery late, it was twice disclosed on the eve of trial, including discovery of a report that contained statements of a key state’s witness disclosed as jurors were sitting in the hallway."
The family of the victims was stunned as this played out in court.
"We were walking in the courtroom, sat down 2.2 seconds and had to go back up because we were wondering what the heck you mean a plea? He should have been charged with two counts of murder." said Shamika White, the sister of Clarence White.
Shamika White says the system did not get justice for her brother and sister-in-law.
"We were in court and heard this man plead guilty to killing my brother and sister-in-law. I believe he also robbed them. At this point I'm upset with the system. They all dropped the ball. The prosecuting attorney. All the continuances, the holdbacks, the evidence. Evidence that was proven and given that wasn't used. Our loved ones did not get justice," added Shamika White.
Shamika White said her family wants to seek help to review what happened in this case.
''It's been hard for us. We are still devastated by this. Clarence was a loving, caring person. He loved his kids and we loved him. Kelly was a smiler. A very happy person. We are not going to sit by. We will take our concerns to the state attorney general. The judicial system needs to do more for families hit hard by these horrible crimes," said Shamika White.
Gardner's office has been under scrutiny following a series of high-profile crimes in St. Louis. The Missouri Attorney General, Andrew Bailey, started legal measures to remove Gardner from office. Gardner has denied claims of wrongdoing and called the attack racist.