With the murder trial of Charles Cook scheduled to get underway with jury selection next week, there have been a number of court rulings in the pre-trial process, and already an appeal to State Superior Court.
Cook is charged with criminal homicide and robbery in the shooting death of 76-year-old Myrtle McGill at her home along South 6th Street in Indiana. He was identified as a suspect in 2007 and finally located and arrested in Minnesota in 2016.
A number of previously sealed entries on Cook’s docket sheet have now been unsealed, showing rulings and motions filed in recent weeks, and in fact going back to January. Judge William Martin has denied defense motions to suppress Cook’s statements to authorities in Minnesota, to suppress Cook’s DNA swab, and to dismiss the case due to Pennsylvania’s timely trial statute.
The judge has ruled that Dr. Steven Griffin, who’s from Florida; Nicholas Tranto, from West Virginia; and Larry Reinlasoder, Dr. Keith Babcock, and Irvin Floth, all from Yellowstone County, Montana will be material witnesses for the prosecution.
Finally, Judge Martin ruled as admissible a list of the prosecution’s pieces of evidence related to Cook’s life since the shooting, primarily in the Midwest. Martin also denied some prosecution evidence, while allowing other evidence with limitations. The District Attorney’s office has appealed to Superior Court the judge’s denial of motions to reconsider the admissibility of Cook’s arrest in Montana and some mental health records, and this past Monday, the judge gave the prosecution twenty-one days to file a statement of items being appealed.
Cook’s trial is still listed for jury selection to begin on Monday, but that may be in doubt due to the appeal.
