CONWAY -- The attorney for the oldest of four teenagers accused of killing a Conway couple has asked a judge to postpone the defendant's next court hearing and trial because of new evidence.
Attorney Patrick Benca made the request on behalf of his client, Hunter Drexler, 18, of Clinton, after word spread of a likely plea agreement between the state and co-defendant Justin Staton, 15, of Conway.
Staton and Drexler are charged as adults with two counts each of capital murder, aggravated robbery, theft of property by threat and abuse of a corpse in the July 21 shooting deaths of Staton's legal guardians, Robert and Patricia Cogdell, both 66, of Conway.
Staton is scheduled for a plea hearing Tuesday. Drexler is scheduled for a pretrial hearing Wednesday, but that will be postponed to June 30 if Circuit Judge Troy Braswell approves Drexler's latest motion. The motion requests that a new date for a jury trial not be set until June 30. Drexler's trial had been scheduled to begin June 24.
Benca's motion said he was requesting the postponement "due to outstanding discovery [shared evidence] issues that the State is aware of." Benca did not immediately return a text message seeking comment Friday.
Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland said his office later received an amended motion "that cites new discovery as the basis for the continuance."
"There is no outstanding discovery due the defendant from the state," Hiland said.
In the motion, filed Wednesday and amended Friday, Benca also indicated he expects to file a motion seeking to transfer Drexler's case to juvenile court -- a request already made by Staton and the two other defendants, Connor Atchley, 17, of Greenbrier and his girlfriend, Anastasia Roberts, 17, of Conway.
Atchley and Roberts are charged as adults with two counts each of first-degree murder and felony theft by receiving.
Also this week, Braswell, ruling in Faulkner County Circuit Court, set a hearing on Atchley's juvenile-transfer request for July 6. Roberts' transfer hearing is set for May 25.
The FBI agreed in March to try to help investigators access Staton's iPod and Drexler's iPhone.
The prosecutor's office obtained Staton's iPod in March and Drexler's iPhone last summer, but without the passcodes investigators could not access either Apple device's content. Staton's lead attorney said last week that the iPod had been in an evidence locker at the public defender's office in Little Rock.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Hugh Finkelstein has said police learned Aug. 21 "that after the homicides occurred, Justin Staton told [someone] that there was a lot of evidence on his [iPod]."
Asked Friday if investigators have since been able to access the iPod or the iPhone, Hiland said, "I can't comment on it. Maybe that issue will become more clear after next week."
The Cogdells had been Staton's legal guardians since 2010. They had thought they were his paternal grandparents until DNA testing showed otherwise in 2008.
State Desk on 05/07/2016