A Douglas County judge on Thursday denied the state’s last-minute request to allow an expert witness to testify about cell tower data during an upcoming Lawrence murder trial.
Judge Stacey Donovan made the ruling during a pretrial hearing for Cir Allen Keith Glover, of Lawrence. Glover, 19, is charged with first-degree murder in the June 2024 death of Isaiah Neal, 17, of Lawrence.
Glover’s trial is set to begin in less than two weeks, on Monday, July 7.
State prosecutors on June 9 requested a Kansas Bureau of Investigation special agent be added as an expert witness.
Senior Assistant District Attorney Ricardo Leal said the agent would give a more in-depth testimony to information Lawrence Police Department Detective Nathan Haig briefly testified to in an earlier hearing. Haig is not slated to testify as an expert witness at the trial, Leal said, but he will testify as the lead investigator in the shooting.
Glover’s defense attorney, Michael Clarke, during a June 18 hearing argued the new witness was presented too late and that special agents hold heavy weight to jurors. The parties agreed to schedule Wednesday’s hearing to decide on the matter.
Donovan said the state’s request less than a month before the trial was “well past the deadline for expert disclosure” and that the trial would have to be continued another few months to reconsider. Both parties agreed they didn’t want to delay the trial a third time.
Leal told Donovan he didn’t have a good answer as to why the expert witness wasn’t presented sooner.
Isaiah was shot outside of his family’s townhome in the 2400 block of Alabama Street on June 13, 2024. Read evidence presented during preliminary hearings in the articles linked below and at this link.
Prosecutors on Thursday said they plan to call around 15 witnesses. Jury selection will take place at the beginning of the week, and Leal estimated the portion could take a few hours. Both parties agreed to select 12 jurors and three alternates.
Glover remains in custody of the Douglas County jail with his bond set at $1 million.
Arrestees and defendants in criminal cases should be presumed not guilty unless they are convicted.
Note: This post has been corrected from a previous version.
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Maya Hodison (she/her), equity reporter, can be reached at mhodison@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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