Yesterday in St. Louis City Circuit Court, prosecutors filed to dismiss three murder charges stemming from an alleged July 2020 drive-by shooting. It was the second go around in dismissing the case.
Last July, the Circuit Attorney's Office filed the first nolle prosequi in the case against 20-year-old Joshua Amerson to buy more time for them to ready their prosecution. But yesterday's dismissal, Amerson's defense attorney Dramon Foster says, is the real deal.
For almost three years now, Amerson has been facing a first-degree murder charge as well as two charges of felony murder.
A police probable cause statement alleged that on July 29, 2020 three men — including the then-17-year-old Amerson — were in a stolen car when they shot at and killed 22-year-old Malik Taylor in the Walnut Park West neighborhood.
Other people on the street fired back at the car, killing its other two passengers, Daijon Nearing and Elijah McKinney, both 18, whose deaths led to the felony murder charges against Amerson. (Felony murder is a charge filed against someone who in the process of committing a felony causes the death of someone else, even if their intent was not to cause that individual harm.)
Those two charges as well as the one for first-degree murder were filed against Amerson for the first time in November 2020. A trial was scheduled for August 2022, but prosecutors filed the first dismissal shortly before it was set to begin.
Charges were refiled in that same month, and then-assistant circuit attorney Alex Polta was assigned the case. Polta later took an extended medical leave during which no one from the CAO turned up on the first day of a trial for a different murder case, leading a judge to threaten contempt of court charges. Polta eventually left the prosecutor's office.
Last month, Judge Paula Bryant scheduled Amerson's jury trial to begin this week.But on Monday, before the trial could get underway, the Circuit Attorney's Office announced it would be filing a nolle prosequi for the second time.
Multiple sources tell the RFT that witnesses involved in the case were not cooperating with the prosecution.
Though the case was dismissed without prejudice, meaning that charges could be refiled, Foster says that isn't in the cards.
"This time it was a legitimate dismissal because witnesses aren't responding, can't be found. When people don't show up, that's what happens," Foster says. "The case is only as strong as its witnesses."
Foster adds, "It was a long time coming. I was chopping at the tree, but today was the final falling of it."
Of his client Amerson, who has spent the last three years with an ankle monitor, Foster says, "He's an upstanding citizen in the community. He has a really good, solid family. … This particular person is not going to be around other kids who are troublemakers."
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