A motion was filed Monday morning in the McLennan County 54th District Court by two defense attorneys handling a number of Twin Peaks cases to quash and object the re-indictment of defendant Marcus Pilkington.
Pilkington was re-indicted on a riot charge in connection to the case where nine people died and 23 others were hospitalized from the May 17, 2015 Twin Peaks shooting in Waco.
Houston criminal defense attorneys, Paul Looney and Mark Thiesan filed the motion based on research done by Waco criminal attorney Robert Callahan.
Looney said they “are of the opinion that the second indictment was unlawfully obtained and cannot now be lawfully obtained.”
“Just when it was beginning to look like the McLennan County District Attorney’s office had discarded the ‘Book of Waco’ and chosen to follow the Code of Criminal Procedure, we found that they are still making their own rules and have now made an inexcusable blunder,” Looney said.
Callahan said the problem with the re-indictments is the district attorney’s office filed cases without dismissing the original indictment.
The correct method of filing the riot charge, for instance, would have been to indict it as a new case with a new cause number. They could have had the two charges running parallel. Now, instead, the second indictment is of no legal import at all and is voidable which means the riot statute of limitations has run on all the new indictments and they are stuck with the “engaging” charges they initially used.
The Houston attorneys said in a statement dismissals on all but 25 defendants were filed in early 2018 with them being reindicted on charges including riot, murder and riot, tampering with physical evidence, and unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon.
The following re-indicted cases are below:
1. Ray Allen – murder and riot
2. Jeff Battey – murder and riot
3. Mitchell Bradford – two counts of riot
4. Richard Cantu – riot
5. Aaron Carpenter – riot
6. Jake Carrizol – riot
7. Nathan Champeau – two counts of riot
8. Roy Covey – tampering with or fabricating physical evidence
9. William Flowers – two counts of riot
10. John Guerrero – riot
11. Jeremy King – unlawful possession of firearm by felon
12. Richard Lockhart – riot
13. Rich Luther – tampering with physical evidence
14. David Martinez – riot
15. Wesley McAlister – two counts of riot
16. Tom Mendez – riot
17. Marshall Mitchell – riot
18. Jerry Pierson – riot
19. Marcus Pilkington – riot
20. Jacob Reese – two counts of riot
21. Owen Reeves – two counts of riot/habitual
22. Timothy Satterwhite – two counts riot/enhanced/unlawful possession firearm by felon
23. Kyle Smith – two counts riot/tampering with evidence
24. Glenn Walker – murder and riot
25. Reginald Weathers - riot
Looney has invited all defendants to use their work in this motion in any manner that is helpful.
Read the motion below: