We have a brand new updated website! Click here to check it out!

Hearing on search warrants on murder weapon and meth lab pushed to Tuesday

The hearing which District Judge Trish Rose had scheduled for Monday over a defense motion in a meth case has been pushed back to Tuesday morning.

She recently took under advisement the motion to suppress of two search warrants involving a storage shed belonging to Jason Casanova, located north of Hutchinson.

Casanova is accused of a numerous felony charges associated with an alleged meth lab which was discovered at 6210 North Tobacco Road back on August 31, of last year.

As we has told you earlier, the defense contends that police didn’t have probable cause for one of two search warrants when they searched the storage unit. The first search warrant was served because of the possibility that he may have stashed the gun used to shoot and kill Jennifer Heckel at that location. During the preliminary hearing for murder suspects Billy Craig Jr., and Charles Christopher Logsdon, it came to light that Casanova was told to get rid of the murder weapon. While searching for the gun, police then allegedly discovered the items to manufacture methamphetamine and then got a second search warrant on those items. Shannon Crane argues the second search would be fruit of a poisonous tree, because they didn’t have probable cause for the first search warrant.

The state argues that the owners of the storage unit had taken it back a few days prior to those search warrants being served, in fact had changed the lock. Deputy District Attorney Tom Stanton states also implied that the owners gave consent to search and that Casanova no longer had any expectation of privacy and that makes the search warrants valid. They never found any guns in that unit, only a silver gun case.

The state had trouble locating the correct affidavits for the initial search, so Judge Rose took under advisement any ruling on the defense motion to give the defense time to examine the affidavit, since they apparently were not given a copy.

Again, a hearing on the motions scheduled for 9 a-m Tuesday morning.

Copyright Eagle Radio | FCC Public Files | EEO Public File