Amid a flurry of sealed entries in the last two weeks, Indiana County President Judge William Martin has scheduled a motions hearing today in the Charles Cook homicide case.
Cook is a drifter who is accused of killing 76-year-old Myrtle McGill in December of 1991. He’s accused of taking a bus across the state to Indiana to avoid detention in a halfway house to which he’d been assigned. Investigators said McGill was shot from outside her home as she stood in her kitchen on South 6th Street in Indiana. Cook was identified as the suspect in 2007 based on DNA on a cigarette butt found in McGill’s car, which was abandoned at the Greyhound Bus terminal in Pittsburgh. He was finally located in Minnesota in October of 2016 and extradited to Indiana the following March.
Attorney Aaron Ludwig filed his motion in November and amended it last month. He contends that the charges should be dismissed, based on state law that demands a speedy trial. That law demands that a trial be held within 365 days of charges being filed against a criminal defendant and within 180 days if the defendant is in custody. There have been numerous delays in bringing the case to trial, some caused by defense motions.
Today’s hearing is scheduled for 10 AM. The trial is scheduled to begin on March 18th.
