A murder case that’s nearing its fourth anniversary likely won’t see a resolution until some time at the end of this year.
39-year old Kenneth Acree appeared in Morgan County Court Friday afternoon for a status hearing. Acree is accused of shooting and killing 32-year Robert “Joey” Schofield on October 4, 2020 and then allegedly concealing his death by burying his body on property that Schofield owned in rural Murrayville.
Neither State’s Attorney Gray Noll or Defense Attorney Daniel Fultz were able to be in attendance on Friday. The state was represented by Assistant State’s Attorney Chad Turner while W. Scot Hanken was defense counsel.
Visiting Sangamon County Judge Ryan Cadigan confirmed a trial start date of December 10th with the confirmation of at least one more omnibus-style hearing in between now and then.
Turner says that final pretrial setting should tie up any loose ends: “We always put in a date before the actually jury trial date, before we start calling in potential jurors to try to determine if there is any last-minute motions, anything of that nature. There is always a chance for continued plea negotiations, obviously. Then, there is also a thing that the court has to go through that is required that’s called a pre-flight checklist. Basically, the judge has to go through several admonishments with the defendant as is required before we start picking a jury.”
Defense Attorney Hanken mentioned during the hearing that their may be some minor issues that both sides need to agree upon off the docket prior to coming to a jury trial. Judge Cadigan said he would not set a hard cut off date on things but would certainly take into consideration any pretrial motions.
Turner says that despite the age on the case, the investigation into Schofield’s murder continues: “The state has an ongoing obligation to disclose what their evidence is before any trial. We don’t have trials by ambush or trials by surprise. We turn over everything, and obviously, we have done that; but the nature of these cases is that investigations always continue. Even at this late date several years later, we are still investigating and potentially coming up with evidence. I think [Hanken] was asking the judge to kind of put a final date beyond which we not be allowed to continue the investigation and coming up with new evidence. That is just not the status of the law, and the judge said ‘no, we are not going to close that date.’ Obviously, the state has an ongoing obligation. We don’t withhold anything, but that is not going to preclude us from continuing to look as time goes by.”
Turner says it is a lengthy time between continuances, but with Judge Cadigan and defense counsel both coming from Springfield and also working around their Sangamon County docket, scheduling may be a bit precarious.
Turner says the jury trial in December is going to be the first time that’s happened in over two decades: “We always talk about how there hasn’t been a jury trial in December in Morgan County in 20 years. Justice comes first. Potential jurors have a duty. Do we like the idea of taking that time away from their families and things of that nature during the Christmas season, shopping, and things of that nature? No, but some things just take priority.”
Turner believes that the jury trial will last approximately a week. The final pretrial status hearing will be announced once the attorneys and Judge Cadigan can come to an agreed upon date around respective schedules, with jury selection slated for the morning of Tuesday, December 10th.