DOVER — A second trial of a 29-year-old man accused of murder during a 2010 shooting death in a Rodney Village area bowling alley parking lot will go forward, a Superior Court judge ruled on Wednesday.
Defendant Isaiah W. McCoy, of Dover, argued that a prosecutor’s misconduct and judicial error nullified a previous conviction, and he should not be tried again for the same alleged crime.
In a 15-page order, however, Judge Robert B. Young ruled that no intent by the prosecutor to push Mr. McCoy toward a mistrial could be determined,
“Despite the sequence of overreaching prior to the misconduct and prosecutor’s experience in this case, the prosecutor cannot be considered to have intended to goad the defendant into moving for a mistrial,” Judge Young concluded.
“Initially, he argued against a mistrial, and further some of the conduct that the defendant includes in his motion to dismiss occurred during the guilt phase of the trial, after the prosecutor had already obtained a conviction.”
Isaiah W. McCoy
Citing actions by the prosecutor and trial judge, the Supreme Court overturned a previous conviction against McCoy on Jan. 20, 2015 and sent it back to Superior Court.
Jury selection for the new trial is scheduled to begin on Jan. 3, 2017, though Mr. McCoy requested it be heard by a judge only at a hearing on Monday afternoon. The defendant represented himself at the first trial that began in May 2012, but now as attorneys Herbert Mondros, Margolis Edelstein, and Michael Wiseman as counsel.
While the prosecutor engaged in “inexcusable” conduct when threatening to publicly label Mr. McCoy a snitch and cause trouble for him in prison, according to the Court, the threat occurred in the postconviction phase on July 5, 2012 and did indicate a mistrial was sought.
On July 6, 2010 Mr. McCoy was indicted on eight counts — including first-degree murder and robbery — regarding the shooting death of Salisbury, Maryland resident Jeffrey Munford during an alleged drug deal roughly two months earlier.
Deputy Attorneys General Greg Babowal and Stephen Smith are prosecuting the case for the state.