MO AG Drops Murder Charges After Detective Gets Brain Cancer

ST. LOUIS, MO — Attorney General Josh Hawley has dropped murder charges against three men and a woman after a St. Louis homicide detective's diagnosis with brain cancer, the Post-Dispatch reports. The detective would have been the prosecution's primary witness and is now unable to testify because of his illness.

The four, whose ages range from 28 to 40 years old, had been accused of conspiring to kill two witnesses to another murder allegedly committed by the woman's son. Those charges were also dropped back in 2015 after two witnesses were murdered and another two refused to testify.

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The case was being prosecuted by the state attorney general because of a conflict of interest with one assistant prosecutor in the circuit attorney's office, according to the Post-Dispatch. That prosecutor had once counseled one of the defendants during his time as a public defender.

A spokesperson for the attorney general said the office plans to refile charges once new witnesses can be found.

Read more from the Post-Dispatch.

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