Click here to subscribe today or Login.
KINGSTON — A preliminary hearing for homicide suspect Mercedes Hall, 16, may be continued as prosecutors seek another district judge to preside over the court proceeding.
Hall, of East Grove Street, Kingston, is scheduled to appear Thursday before District Judge James Haggerty, who dismissed the homicide charge against her after a preliminary hearing June 7.
Prosecutors re-filed the homicide charge against Hall later that day, setting up a second preliminary hearing.
On Tuesday, prosecutors filed a motion to continue Thursday’s proceeding requesting a county judge to assign a district judge other than Haggerty.
Prosecutors allege Hall was inside an Arch Street, Edwardsville, residence with Gabriella Elizabeth Long, 17, Christopher Brian Cortez, 19, and Devin Malik Cunningham, when Joseph Monka, 71, was killed April 15. His body was discovered by Edwardsville police Detective Michael Lehman on April 17 when he responded to the residence for an unresponsive man.
Long was the granddaughter of Monka and moved into his residence in March.
Forensic pathologist Dr. Gary Ross testified during the June 7 hearing Monka was stabbed 43 times and was severely beaten.
State police investigators testified Hall during interviews reported she was in a bedroom with Long listening to music while Cortez and Cunningham disappeared for more than 30 minutes. They testified Hall left the bedroom and knocked on Monka’s bedroom door, which was opened by Cortez and Cunningham who were both covered in blood.
After Monka was killed, investigators allege the four stole nearly $30,000 from a safe in Monka’s residence and went on a shopping spree at Wyoming Valley Mall, buying new clothes and sneakers and discarding their old attire in garbage cans inside the mall.
Trooper Ed Urban testified they retrieved discarded sneakers from the mall’s garbage compactor at a landfill.
Haggerty forwarded criminal homicide charges against Long, Cortez, of McHale Street, Wilkes-Barre, and Cunningham, of North Empire Street, Wilkes-Barre, to county court following the June 7 proceeding.