With the trial date two weeks away, an ex-bodyguard of Mayor Frank Melton made another plea Wednesday to be tried separately from the mayor, “the subject of a mountain of evidence.”
In a motion filed in U.S. District Court, Cynthia Stewart, attorney for Jackson police Detective Michael Recio, pressed her argument that trying Recio and Melton together would rob the former bodyguard of his right to a fair trial by denying him a “crucial witness” in Melton.
“Michael Recio was assigned by the Jackson Police Department to the Mayoral Detail,” Cynthia Stewart wrote in the motion. “All he did was comply with the requirements of his job. To try him with someone who is willing to testify as well as someone who is the subject of a mountain of evidence that does not apply to Michael Recio, simply violates any sense of fairness set forth in the United States Constitution.”
Magnolia Tribune
