A Westmoreland County Judge has denied a request by the defense to have the conspiracy case against a Monessen man for a shooting in 2017 dismissed.
The Tribune-Review reports that 23-year-old Rayshawn Ford is in jail awaiting a possible re-trial for two conspiracy charges related to the shooting of Timothy “Boo” Kershaw in June of 2017. Kershaw was injured but survived the incident. Judge Christopher Feliciani had declared a mistrial in the first trial because prosecutors had failed to turn over to the defense new statements that Kershaw made to police just before the trial began. Defense attorneys claimed that putting Kershaw on trial again would violate his double jeopardy rights, but Judge Feliciani said that the prosecution’s failure to turn over the new statements was not intentional.
A decision on a retrial is up to the prosecution, and a decision is set to come down in the next four months.
