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Shooting at the Barn

It has been six weeks since Jakier Austin was arrested for the murder of WSSU student Najee Ali Baker on the Wake campus. However Austin still has not been arraigned or made an initial court appearance. That seems like a long time, since such things usually happen within days of an arrest. I wonder what is the reason for the delay.

Probably coming from the Defense's side just trying to delay the inevitable, or perhaps gamesmanship with both sides trying to shop their favorite judge.
 
It has been six weeks since Jakier Austin was arrested for the murder of WSSU student Najee Ali Baker on the Wake campus. However Austin still has not been arraigned or made an initial court appearance. That seems like a long time, since such things usually happen within days of an arrest. I wonder what is the reason for the delay.

There is nothing extraordinary about this. Once he was arrested he was given a first appearance where he appeared in front of a judge and bond was set (no bond). Then the judge sets a court date in preliminary court. Felony cases in Forsyth County (with very few exceptions) stay in preliminary court for a number of months before the state indicts. No trials can be done in PC court and only guilty pleas to certain classes of low level felonies can be heard in PC court (it is still district court) so all higher level felonies will eventually have to be indicted and sent to superior court. The DA assigned to this case is still developing the case file and accumulating evidence in the case before going to the grand jury to seek a formal indictment. There is no set timetable on this. Once a case gets indicted it will sit in superior court for another few months up or even years before a trial even happens. Pleas can happen sooner.
 
There is nothing extraordinary about this. Once he was arrested he was given a first appearance where he appeared in front of a judge and bond was set (no bond). Then the judge sets a court date in preliminary court. Felony cases in Forsyth County (with very few exceptions) stay in preliminary court for a number of months before the state indicts. No trials can be done in PC court and only guilty pleas to certain classes of low level felonies can be heard in PC court (it is still district court) so all higher level felonies will eventually have to be indicted and sent to superior court. The DA assigned to this case is still developing the case file and accumulating evidence in the case before going to the grand jury to seek a formal indictment. There is no set timetable on this. Once a case gets indicted it will sit in superior court for another few months up or even years before a trial even happens. Pleas can happen sooner.

So there was a first appearance. Seems BobHWS had his facts wrong. No bond seems fair for a murder charge.
 
I am not involved in the slightest but am very familiar with this process so I am speaking generally here... but the young kid wasn’t charged with murder. He was charged with a number of things for which he was virtually guaranteed to get some type of bond set. That is why there was more of a to-do with his first appearance... there was actually something to argue about. Where as for first degree murder he was never going to have a bond set. There was very little that happened at his first appearance. Mainly they set his next court date and probably assigned him a lawyer (or asked if he would hire his own) and read him the rest of his rights. Couple that with the fact that this horrific situation is no longer fresh on the minds of the local public and it’s easy to see why the WSJ wouldn’t feel the need to write about it.
 
Any additional info available now that the Dec 6 hearing date has passed? Next court date? Still in jail or bail set?
 
Just to give you a heads up BobHWS:

The case is currently in preliminary court (PREL). This is a district court where felonies start out before being indicted and sent to superior court. There will be no plea or trial in a case like this at the district court level (only low level felonies can be handled in district court). Court appearances for this type of offense in preliminary court are generally of little substance and are simply continuances until the next month. The defendant is usually not even present. Once indicted we will know a lot more about whether or not it will be a plea or a trial. It is still very early on in the process for a serious case such as this one. Murder cases tend to sit in district court for months if not years before even being heard.
 
So this is the guy that grabbed a gun and held the crowd at bay right, not the one who actually fired the shot?
 
He’s 17 and he was at that party when he was 15 or 16 and he was in jail for 16 months and he’s still awaiting trial. Everything is messed up about this.
 
Shooter sentenced to 64 to 89 months for manslaughter - https://greensboro.com/news/crime/m...cle_1b88e0c1-9ebb-5999-95e1-585cd5a05722.html Despite the fact that 400 people attended the party on that cold January night, no one came forward to say what exactly happened, Foster said. "The lack of witness cooperation is the reason why we are in the posture in this case," she said.

The juvenile defendant was sentenced to 2 years - https://journalnow.com/news/local/a...cle_577f1e16-85b0-52a0-891c-109c1fa2f34d.html
 
Despite the fact that 400 people attended the party on that cold January night, no one came forward to say what exactly happened, Foster said. "The lack of witness cooperation is the reason why we are in the posture in this case," she said.

Total BS, indeed. Nobody had the integrity or apparently gave even the slightest damn about a kid losing his life to report what they saw???
 
Total BS, indeed. Nobody had the integrity or apparently gave even the slightest damn about a kid losing his life to report what they saw???

I hope you feel this way about cops who don’t come forward when cops kill people.
 
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