Cape Girardeau murder suspect's trial set for next week

As Kenneth Bell prepares to go to trial next week on murder charges, family members are placing their trust in a higher court.

"We are not nervous at all," Bell's sister-in-law, India Williams, said Monday outside the courtroom where lawyers were preparing to discuss several pretrial matters. "... You best believe God's got him."

All Bell's family can do is rely on faith, said his mother, Vergie Reeves.

"It's out of our hands, you know?" she said.

Bell faces two counts of first-degree murder and one of armed criminal action in connection with the Feb. 7, 2013, shooting deaths of Misty Cole and Shannon James.

He 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.

Reeves expressed sympathy Monday for the victims' relatives.

"My heart goes out to the other family, because it could have easily been my son, but by the grace of God it was not, but I feel just as bad for them," she said. "Being a mother, you've got to love your child no matter what."

Circuit Judge Benjamin Lewis on Monday took up a motion to reconsider an earlier ruling on a motion to suppress statements Bell made to police after the shooting.

In the motion to suppress filed last summer, Bell's public defenders, Cynthia Dryden and Beth Kerry, alleged officers violated their client's constitutional rights.

Among other things, Dryden and Kerry argued officers promised leniency to get Bell to talk to them, tricked him into making statements, failed to advise him of his Miranda rights, failed to provide him a lawyer before or during his interrogation and did not stop interrogating him when he indicated he wanted to remain silent and have an attorney present.

After hearing testimony from detective Don Perry of the Cape Girardeau Police Department about a video of officers' interactions with Bell at the police station the night of the shootings -- which Perry said he reviewed last week -- Lewis took the matter under advisement.

Jury selection in the case is set to begin this morning after Lewis holds a final pretrial conference with lawyers for both sides.

epriddy@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

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