More than two and a half years after Sturgeon Stewart was arrested, his trial was supposed to begin next Monday. However, as of this afternoon, that trial date is almost certainly off.
The St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office announced at a hearing in front of Circuit Court Judge Rex Burlison that they plan to drop the slew of charges Stewart is facing and refile them at a later date.
The move, known as a nolle prosequi, essentially restarts the clock for the case. It is a move that buys prosecution time, but it also leaves defendants in limbo. As part of his effort to remove Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner from office, Attorney General Andrew Bailey accused her office of abusing the tactic. (Bailey filed a motion to dismiss his quo warranto case against Gardner this afternoon, one day after she resigned from office.)
This would be the second nolle prosequi in Stewart's case. Charges were previously dropped and refiled last November. Stewart has been in jail since early September of 2020 on charges of murder, kidnapping, robbery and assault.
Today in court, Stewart's public defender, Adofo Minka, said that the state has still not produced video and DNA evidence he's asked for. Court filings indicate that the public defender's office has been asking for that video evidence since at least last July.
The prosecutor in the case, Rufus Tate, was only recently hired by the Circuit Attorney's Office. He said the state was still waiting on DNA evidence to be processed in the police's crime lab.
Yet questions have arisen as to whether Tate — a longtime criminal defense attorney in St. Louis — is even able to work as a prosecutor.
Tate currently represents clients in St. Louis County, including numerous defendants in municipal courts as well as defendants facing felonies in circuit court, such as armed criminal action, unlawful use of a weapon and catalytic converter theft. He was apparently hired as a special prosecutor by the Circuit Attorney’s Office in the final weeks of Kim Gardner’s tenure, which saw so many prosecutors leave, the office could barely function.
Yet Judge Burlison appeared to question in court today whether Tate could legally do the job.
According to state law, it is "unlawful for any prosecuting attorney or circuit attorney, or any assistant prosecuting attorney or any assistant circuit attorney…to accept employment by any party other than the state of Missouri in any criminal case or proceeding."
The law goes on, "Any violation of the provisions of this section shall be deemed a misdemeanor."
The Circuit Attorney's Office possibly has questions of its own about Tate's ability to serve as a special prosecutor. Yesterday Tate filed a nolle proesqui in the case of Charl Howard, who was first taken into custody in 2018 for a murder committed that year. Later that same day chief warrant officer Chris Hinckley also filed a nolle proesqui under Hinckley’s own name and bar number in that same case, too.
This afternoon's hearing was also attended by William Corrigan, the deputy attorney general who is currently the number two man in the circuit attorney's office. Corrigan left the courtroom with Tate afterwards, but declined to answer questions from the media.
We welcome tips and feedback. Email the author at ryan.krull@riverfronttimes.comor follow on Twitter at @RyanWKrull.
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