OFF THE WIRE
Murder charges against a Battle Creek man were dropped Wednesday but quickly reinstated.
Matthew Starkweather, 32, is charged in the Jan. 1 beating death of Lee Taylor, 45. Battle Creek police said Taylor was found dead about 6 a.m. that morning at the Iron Coffin Motorcycle Club, 15 Gilbert St.
Starkweather entered the Calhoun County District Courtroom of Judge Frank Line Wednesday morning for a scheduled preliminary examination on the murder charge.
But Assistant Prosecutor Jeff Kabot said he decided to dismiss the charges because investigators were awaiting results of laboratory tests.
"I have had a conversation with the Michigan State Police Crime Lab and the DNA is not complete and they need more time," he said. "And that is critical evidence as it relates to the prosecution of this case.
"So my inclination is to dismiss and proceed at a later time."
Kabot said Starkweather would be immediately arrested before he was set free and should be arraigned on the same murder charge today.
"I am opposed to this adjournment," said defense attorney J. Thomas Schaeffer. "This is just a ruse to keep my client in jail and violate his due process constitutional rights."
Schaeffer argued that Starkweather has been jailed since Jan. 1 and a preliminary examination scheduled Jan. 13 was adjourned because the autopsy report was not complete.
"Now the prosecutor and the government will do what they do to keep him incarcerated another 14 days."
Schaeffer said if the charges are going to be dismissed and reissued then his client, held without bond since his arrest, should have a bond.
"I ask that bond be set so he can have his liberty until they can get their case together."
Line told both lawyers that the prosecutors are permitted to dismiss the charges, and he granted that motion, and said he could not consider bond until Starkweather is arraigned.
"It is a miserable quirk in the law that they can hold someone until they get their case together," Schaeffer said after court adjourned.
Later, Kabot said investigators also are considering charges against a second man who was present at the club.
"There may be a second person of interest," he said.
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