Judge Trish Rose took under advisement a defense motion to suppress one of two search warrants involving a storage shed north of Hutchinson.

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

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 the thought that he may have stashed the gun used to shoot 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 the 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. But, he told the judge that because he no longer had control over the storage unit, he 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.

We could see a ruling or further arguments on Monday according to Stanton.

A tentative trial date in the case is set for February 28, but that’s not Casanova’s only issue. He still faces federal gun charges.