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WILKES-BARRE — A hearing is scheduled Thursday on a request by prosecutors for another district judge to preside over the preliminary hearing for a teenager charged in her alleged role in the brutal slaying of a 71-year-old man in Edwardsville earlier this year.

Prosecutors last week filed a motion seeking to preclude District Judge James Haggerty from presiding over the preceding of Mercedes Hall, 16, charged with an open count of criminal homicide.

Haggerty after a preliminary hearing June 7 dismissed the homicide charge against Hall.

Prosecutors refiled the homicide charge against her setting up a second preliminary hearing. She, along with Gabriella Elizabeth Long, 17, Christopher Brian Cortez, 19, and Devin Malik Cunningham, 20, are accused in the death of Joseph Monka, 71, in his Edwardsville home on Arch Street.

Haggerty forwarded homicide and related charges to county court against Long, Cortez and Cunningham.

Prosecutors in their motion accuse Haggerty of making improper comments to a state police investigator that indicate he prejudged the case related to Hall.

Long was the granddaughter of Monka and moved into his residence in March.

Investigators allege the four plotted to kill Monka and afterwards stole nearly $30,000 from a safe in his house.

Forensic pathologist Dr. Gary Ross testified during the June 7 hearing Monka was stabbed 43 times and was severely beaten.

Luzerne County President Judge Richard M. Hughes III scheduled a hearing on the request by prosecutors for another district judge on Thursday.

Mercedes Hall Aimee Dilger|TimesLeader
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/web1_Mercedes-Lin-Hall-05022019.jpg.optimal.jpgMercedes Hall Aimee Dilger|TimesLeader

By Anjelica Singer for the Times Leader