Cape Girardeau double-murder trial pushed back to 2015

A circuit judge set a January 2015 trial date Tuesday for a Cape Girardeau man accused of gunning down two people at their apartment after an altercation on a sidewalk.

Kenneth Bell, 23, faces charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action in connection with the Feb. 7 shooting deaths of Misty Cole and Shannon James.

In court Tuesday, Bell's public defender, Cynthia Dryden, requested a motions hearing for early next year.

Judge Benjamin Lewis scheduled the hearing for 9 a.m. Feb. 28, with a Feb. 3 deadline for Dryden to file motions.

He set the case for jury trial Jan. 20 to 23, 2015, with jury selection to begin Jan. 14, 2015.

It was not immediately clear why the case was scheduled so far in advance. But in court, Dryden mentioned several scheduling conflicts earlier in 2014 and suggested November 2014 or January 2015 as the best times for the trial.

Dryden is the third assistant public defender to represent Bell since February. She inherited the case from Patti Tucka after Bell requested a different attorney in August.

Tucka had taken over the case from Michael Sato, who left the area in June to take a job in the Northern Mariana Islands.

Bell is accused of going to James' and Cole's apartment at 401 S. Pacific St. and shooting them after getting into a verbal altercation with James on a nearby sidewalk.

Argentry Marshall, a friend of James, testified at a preliminary hearing March 7 that Bell apparently became angry after James bumped into him on a Cape Girardeau sidewalk.

The two men exchanged words, and James eventually walked away and went to his apartment, where Bell -- who lived in the same building -- shot him and Cole with a semi-automatic handgun, Marshall testified.

At the hearing, a Cape Girardeau detective said Bell told him he did not know James or Cole by name but had seen them in the building.

epriddy@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

401 S. Pacific St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.