South Campus Incident : Suspects’ case to be heard by grand jury
Attorneys from both sides agreed to forego the preliminary hearing scheduled for Friday in the case of the four students accused of committing armed robbery at a Syracuse University’s South Campus apartment on Feb. 9. The case was waived to the grand jury.
SU students Akhere Akhuemokhan, Odion Akhuemokhan, Michael Uko and former SU student Brian Reyes were scheduled to appear before Judge Jeffrey Merrill at the County of Onondaga/City of Syracuse Criminal Courthouse for a 10 a.m. preliminary hearing on Friday.
Instead, the evidence against the defendants was transferred to a grand jury. From there, the grand jury by law has six months from the date of arrest to either dismiss the case or deliver an indictment.
Barry Weiss, administrative officer for the Onondaga County District Attorney’s office, said his office has an internal policy the grand jury must come to a decision within four months of the date of arrest, which was Feb. 10. He said given the nature of the case, he expects a decision to be reached relatively soon.
The defendants were arrested on felony charges of first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary and first-degree criminal use of a firearm and also with the misdemeanor charge of criminal possession of a weapon.
The charges stem from an alleged armed robbery and burglary at 320 Winding Ridge Road Apt. 2 at 12:25 a.m. on Feb. 9. Three of the defendants allegedly displayed handguns and stole cash and marijuana, according to Syracuse court documents.
It was originally reported in The Daily Orange that Uko was in possession of a gun at the time of his arrest in his room at Lyons Hall. The Syracuse Police Department later said The D.O. misinterpreted the arrest report. On Uko’s arrest report, under a box labeled ‘Weapon(s) at Arrest’ the word ‘gun’ is written.
Uko’s lawyer, August Nordone, declined to comment Friday.
Akhere Akhuemokhan, Odion Akhuemokhan, and Uko are being held in the Onondaga County Justice Center on bail, $25,000 cash or $50,000 bond. The fourth defendant, Reyes, was released on bail Thursday, said Katy Karlovitz of the McGraw Law Firm, which represents Reyes.
Although Reyes was scheduled to be in court Friday, he was not present. Minutes before the hearing was supposed to begin, a court official was seen searching for Reyes among the group of people in the hallway outside the courtroom.
Judge Merrill said he was originally inclined to issue a warrant for Reyes’ arrest, but after speaking to his counsel he decided against it. Reyes appeared in court Thursday for a bail review and is due back in court on Thursday for a hearing, Karlovitz said.
The grand jury proceedings will happen in secrecy, and there is no way to know how long it will take to review the evidence recovered during the investigation and decide whether or not it is sufficient to continue with the charges.
During the preliminary hearing, that evidence would have been presented in the courtroom, so the judge could review it and decide whether or not to send it to a grand jury. Without a preliminary hearing, the evidence being used against the defendants will likely not be entered into the court file, which is public information, said Jim Mackelwitz of the Onondaga County Clerk’s office.
Published on February 17, 2008 at 12:00 pm
