MAYS LANDING —
Michael Castro was trying to rebuild his life more than a year after he
was freed from jail following the dismissal of a murder indictment.
In a pending federal lawsuit, he
claims malicious prosecution by the Atlantic County prosecutor, his
detectives and others who charged him with murder in the 2012 killing of
a Mullica Township man.
But on Thursday, he was back in
Atlantic County Superior Court, facing the same charges before the judge
who dismissed the previous indictment against him.
“We’re in an entirely different
position at this point,” First Assistant Prosecutor Diane Ruberton told
Superior Court Judge Bernard DeLury. “We are starting from a new point,
your honor. We are starting from the beginning.”
It was not the evidence that was the problem, but the way it was presented to grand jurors in July 2013, she said.
The presentation that brought a new indictment Tuesday was different.
Why it took nearly 15 months since Castro was freed from jail to take the case back to a grand jury was not explained.
Discovery in the federal civil suit is due today.
Defense attorney Douglas Cody —
who successfully got the first indictment tossed — was once again by
Castro’s side in court. He also is his lawyer in the civil matter.
He did not want to comment after the hearing, but instead pointed to the federal suit and said, “What is in there still stands.”
John Kingsbury, 77, was found bleeding inside his son’s home Feb. 5, 2012. An autopsy showed he died of two gunshot wounds.
Fourteen months later, Castro was
charged in the case, and then arrested in Florida, where the martial
arts instructor was getting ready to start a new business.
“Who is going to work with me now?” he asked The Press of Atlantic City in September 2014. “How am I supposed to get hired somewhere with this on my record?”
He was again getting ready to start a business in Pemberton, Burlington County, where he was living with his fiancee.
Cody asked that Castro be
released on his own recognizance, which the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s
Office had not contested in 2014. But that was with no indictment and
no new grand jury presentment, Ruberton pointed out.
“It’s entirely appropriate that there be a bail, and a significant bail because it is a homicide,” she said.
DeLury did, however, agree to
lower the $800,000 bail to $250,000, which had been the original lowered
bail consented to by both sides after the judge tossed the first
indictment
.
.
“The court should take the matter up anew,” DeLury said, “even though there has not been a significant change.”
Contact: 609-272-7257
Twitter @LyndaCohen
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/man-indicted-again-in-mullica-killing-appears-in-court/article_240c68fe-c5d4-11e5-8041-47eb75de8937.html
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/breaking/man-freed-in-mullica-killing-jailed-again-in-same-case/article_a553f534-c54e-11e5-84e7-87369f0d665e.html
Related posts at
http://gadfly01.blogspot.com/2013/04/mullica-2012-murder-suspect-charged.html
http://gadfly01.blogspot.com/2013/02/unsolved-murder_8.html
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/breaking/man-again-facing-murder-charge-in-killing/article_4856e460-0020-11e6-8029-437088524ea4.html
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