Judge nixes request to suppress testimony in assault case

Judge Benjamin Lewis on Friday overruled a motion to suppress testimony in the first-degree assault case of Ryan Harkey.

Harkey’s lawyer, Art Margulis, argued to suppress the testimony of victim Leonard McAdory because McAdory did not see who hit him, had been drinking the night of the assault Jan. 29 and had been shown only a photograph of Harkey, 27, of Cape Girardeau instead of a photo lineup by a Cape Girardeau police detective.

McAdory said Friday on the courtroom witness stand in Jackson while he did not see Harkey hit him, Harkey was the only person within arm’s reach who could have struck him.

McAdory said he had a beer with Harkey that night before the assault.

He refuted previous testimony from a preliminary hearing Friday and said he recognized Harkey from a previous meeting years ago.

During the preliminary hearing, McAdory said he tried to break up a fight involving Harkey in front of Pyramid Health Services.

At one point, Harkey asked McAdory to beat up someone else who was involved for $200 or $300, McAdory said. Harkey then offered to get McAdory a beer, and the next thing he remembered was being on the ground. McAdory’s injuries included a broken nose, swollen face and a cut behind his ear.

Harkey is charged with two counts of first-degree assault for beating up two men Jan. 29 with accomplice Allen Wayne Biggs, 24, of Scott City.

The other victim, Ethan Flood, said he was going back to Dempsey’s Drinkery when he ran into Harkey and Biggs, according to his testimony at the preliminary hearing.

Harkey asked Flood two questions, one of which prompted him to turn his face, and he was assaulted, according to Flood’s testimony.

Flood remembered waking up in the hospital, according to the testimony.

Flood suffered a skull fracture, a concussion, a ruptured eardrum and a fractured eye socket, among other injuries.

A witness said she saw Biggs and Harkey approach Flood just before the assault, according to a probable-cause statement filed in the case by Cape Girardeau police officer Aaron Bennett.

The witness and Flood were shown photo lineups to identify Harkey, Margulis said.

Surveillance footage showed Harkey and Biggs running from the scene of the assault, Bennett wrote.

Assistant prosecuting attorney Frank Miller said Friday surveillance footage did not show the assault on McAdory. Miller agreed to send lab reports to Margulis related to DNA evidence in the case.

Lewis set Harkey’s trial for July 11 and 12 with a pretrial conference June 16. Margulis filed a change of venue motion but said he only wanted that fulfilled if they could not fill a jury in Cape Girardeau County.

Harkey pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in 2012 for the 2011 stabbing death of Buddy Conrad outside Rumors Bar in downtown Cape Girardeau.

bkleine@semissourian.com

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