Tuesday, November 24, 2009 9:52 PM CST
Trial dates set in group home death case
By DAVE FOPAY, Staff Writer
dfopay@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON — Trials have been scheduled two weeks apart for two former employees of a Charleston group home accused of killing one of the home’s residents.
Daniel J. Clark and Christopher P. Oliver were in court briefly Tuesday for Circuit Judge Teresa Righter to schedule their trials on charges of first-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and neglect offenses.
Clark and Oliver were charged in connection with the Aug. 24, 2008, attack of Dustin T. Higgins at the Graywood Foundations facility at 1511 B St., Charleston. Higgins died from his injuries a few days later at Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana.
With prosecuting and defense attorneys making agreed-to suggestions about the trial dates, Righter scheduled Oliver’s trial to begin on April 26 and set Clark’s to start on May 10. The judge also scheduled what she said would be final pretrial hearings for both suspects on April 9.
The attorneys also all said they think each trial will take about five days. State’s Attorney Steve Ferguson is prosecuting, Urbana attorneys Steve Beckett and Brett Olmstead represent Clark and Chicago attorney Thomas Brandstrader represents Oliver.
Clark, 23, of Dolton and Oliver, 23, whose address on record is on Polk Avenue in Charleston, are accused of attacking Higgins and encouraging other residents of the group home to attack him as well. Both are free on bond.
In May, two other residents of the home, Edward E. Flexter, 28, and Robert T. Gardner, 27, pleaded guilty to aggravated battery charges that accused them of taking part in the attack. Terms of the supervision sentence each received included a requirement that they cooperate in the prosecution of other suspects.
Tuesday’s hearing was the first in the case since Righter denied a defense motion that asked that any of the home’s residents called to testify first be examined for their competence. Instead, Righter said she’ll question those witnesses, without a jury present, about their understanding of the duty to testify truthfully.
There are six of the home’s residents, in addition to Flexter and Gardner, who might be called as prosecution witnesses, according to what’s been said at earlier hearings.
During the hearing at which Flexter and Gardner pleaded guilty, Ferguson said police first questioned Gardner, who said he slammed Higgins to the floor and saw Clark and Oliver kick him in the head and hit him in several places.
Gardner also told police that Clark offered him marijuana and Oliver also promised to give him something if he’d take the blame for the attack, Ferguson also said. Gardner also implicated Flexter in the attack, and Flexter later told police that he hit Higgins and held him while Oliver hit him, he added.
In September, another former employee of the group home pleaded guilty to charges alleging he lied to police investigating the attack. James R. Wynn, 27, of Danville pleaded guilty to obstructing justice charges that were reduced from felonies to misdemeanors and was placed on court supervision for two years.
Ferguson said Wynn told police, at Oliver’s instruction, that he and some of the home’s residents weren’t at the facility at the time of the attack on Higgins, though they actually were.
Contact Dave Fopay at dfopay@jg-tc.com or 238-6858.
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