One murder trial will be back before the Morgan County Court this week after a meeting behind closed doors on Friday.
40-year old Joshua E. Wilson was scheduled for a pretrial hearing in front of visiting Macoupin County Judge Kenneth Diehl on Friday. Prior to the hearing in open court, lawyers and Judge Diehl met behind closed doors for over an hour.
Wilson is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the shooting death of 26-year old Malcolm Fitts of Chicago on the evening of Feb. 28, 2021 at the Turner Hi-Rise Apartment complex’s parking lot. Wilson’s trial has been delayed multiple times for multiple reasons including changes in counsel, scheduling conflicts, and several pretrial motions surrounding evidence.
Morgan County State’s Attorney Gray Noll says that Friday’s hearing was Wilson seeking pretrial release under the SAFE-T Act: “The gist of it is Josh Wilson was set for a hearing on the verified petition to deny the defendant’s pretrial release. He’s an individual that was held prior to the law going into effect that eliminated cash bail. He has elected to proceed under the new system. There was no big mystery as to why it was continued. Basically, there were some exhibits that were introduced today by the defendant and some other last minute things that the court and the parties wanted a little more time to review prior to having a formal hearing.”
Wilson was expected to make a statement before the court on Friday, but instead his petition was continued to this Friday, Feb. 2 in Morgan County Court. Noll anticipates that the case will be concluded some time in the late Spring or early this summer.