FORT SMITH -- A Sebastian County circuit judge on Thursday ordered prosecutors, defense attorneys and law enforcement officers not to comment on the case of a man charged with shooting a jogger in Fort Smith.
While imposing the gag order, Circuit Judge Stephen Tabor denied a request to seal John Suleski's first-degree murder case file, except for crime scene and autopsy photos.
Tabor's order also said an Arkansas Freedom of Information Act request would be required before the prosecutor's office can release case records. The prosecutor will have 72 hours from the entry of his order to respond to pending Freedom of Information Act requests.
Prosecuting Attorney Dan Shue said his office was redacting records in the file on Thursday and would be ready to release them Tuesday.
Shue said Thursday that Tabor's ruling was consistent with two other recent murder cases in the area in which requests were made to prohibit pretrial publicity.
One was the July 2014 case of Douglas David True, who was charged with two counts of capital murder in the stabbing death of his pregnant girlfriend. The other was the 2013 case of Gregory Kinsey, who was convicted in November in the machete murder of two men on a north Fort Smith street.
Suleski, 25, is accused of shooting 44-year-old Brent Morrison multiple times as he jogged past Suleski's parked car early on July 11. Suleski told police investigators he was having marital problems and was contemplating suicide when he saw Morrison jog by and decided to shoot him instead.
NW News on 09/04/2015