By Donna Hales
Motions in the first-degree murder case of Jerry Dewitt Raney were postponed Wednesday because his attorney didn’t have him in court.
Raney is serving time in the Department of Corrections in connection with another case.
One of the motions delayed for hearing until April is Raney’s request to dismiss the murder case for what his attorney says was a lack of “lawful preliminary hearing.”
Special District Judge Robin W. Adair bound Raney over for trial on July 1, 2009 after testimony spread over months.
Allegations in Oklahoma Indigent Defense System Attorney John David Echols’ motion alleging the preliminary hearing wasn’t lawful include:
• No admissible evidence the crime occurred in this jurisdiction.
• Two investigators viewed Raney a “bad, awful, hateful, brute of a man, who had molested and then murdered his stepdaughter.”
Neither showed the least interest in anything that might negate Raney’s guilt or point to the guilt of anyone else.
• No forensic evidence was identified linking Raney to Smart’s death.
• Hearsay evidence that Smart claimed to others Raney had sexually abused or molested her at different times was improperly admitted.
• No investigation was done as to other suspects.
• Numerous alleged sightings of Smart after she went missing were not investigated.
• Inadmissible character and hearsay evidence was submitted.
Muskogee County District Attorney Larry Moore countered all the evidence presented to Adair was admissible.
“Judge Adair apparently thought the same thing and ruled it was,” Moore said.
History
Jerry Dewitt Raney is charged in the death of his stepdaughter, Sara Kendall Smart, 19, who disappeared Jan. 30, 2006.
Her body was discovered in a 55-gallon drum floating in a pond near Haskell on Aug. 6, 2006.
Reach Donna Hales at 918-684-2923 or Click Here to Send Email
