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One of five defendants charged with two counts of second-degree murder in the Pleasant Valley shooting on June 16 is requesting almost $7,000 in payments for being detained as a material witness for nearly five months.
District Court Judge Angela Doyle heard Darrell Jones' argument for material witness payments of $50 for each of the 139 days he was held in the Webster County Jail on a material witness warrant. He was not charged in the shooting that killed Jamael Cox, 25, and Tyrone Cunningham, 47, until November.
The court dismissed the material witness hold on Nov. 10, per request of First Assistant Webster County Attorney Ryan Baldridge, before the defendant's partial resistance to the motion was delivered to the court.
Defense attorney Stanley Roush said Jones is entitled to the per diem encoded in Iowa law, citing an Iowa Supreme Court decision in State v. McKinney which tacitly granted another defendant $40 per day in witness fees. Since that case was decided nearly 13 years ago, Roush argued the amount would reasonably amount to $50 per day in 2020 -- a total of $6,950 for 139 days in custody prior to the charges.
Roush also posited that the payment should not have any consideration with regard to or impact on pending criminal charges, as relating the material witness hold that started June 24 to the second-degree murder charge in November would amount to a serious violation of Jones' right to a speedy trial.
"We question whether the material witness hold was for the purpose of charging (Jones) in the future," Roush said, conceding that he couldn't prove that.
Applicable code says that material witnesses "shall" be paid for time held in jail. Though Baldridge did not dispute that language, he argued that the payment should be at the discretion of the district court, noting that the court could even set the fee at $0 per day.
"The court must assess the effect of confinement on (the defendant's) situation," he said. "There's no evidence to suggest that the defendant (has been negatively impacted) financially."
In support of that, Baldridge said the defendant still had a hold for pending charges in Texas and was unemployed at the time of his arrest, amounting to what was no loss of wages.
Roush said Jones, 23, had the potential for employment available to him in August, and that in any case, he was unable to financially provide for his recovering fiancee, Marissa Andrews.
Andrews was struck in the face and leg at the scene of the shooting, described by law enforcement as a "volley of bullets."
Should the court decide to award the fees, Baldridge requested that they first be delivered to the Webster County Sheriff to cover jail fees for his incarceration on current charges as he awaits trial. Roush rebutted, reiterating that it would be inappropriate to conflate the two cases.
"The defendant made himself unavailable, which is why the state made an order holding him as a material witness," Baldridge said, making the case that Jones' deliberate lack of availability led to his material witness confinement. "If the court determines an amount should be paid, I suppose it's fair to say that the amount should be paid to material witness confinement."
"That's the definition of a material witness warrant," Roush replied, saying the excuse used to confine a material witness was not valid to deny them fees they're legally entitled to.
Neither party cited any other case in oral arguments, as the matter of material witness payments has very limited reference in Iowa case law. Another Fort Dodge defendant in the case, James Davis Jr., 35, was also held as a material witness in the case starting July 2, prior to being charged with two counts of second-degree murder.
Doyle said she would take the arguments into advisement before making her decision. A decision was not issued by the end of Monday.