Third major Portsmouth felony case dismissed after judge rules prosecutors violated speedy trial rules
PORTSMOUTH — Murder charges against one of two brothers accused of taking part in a 2017 fatal shooting were thrown out Monday after a judge ruled prosecutors had violated his right to a speedy trial.
Judge Brenda Spry issued her ruling at the end of a hearing in Portsmouth Circuit Court, during which attorneys for Alexander Weinschel pointed to repeated lapses in his case over the past six years, including a period of more than two years in which no scheduling or continuance orders were ever filed.
“I agree with the defense,” Spry said after hearing from both sides. “In this particular case, the record is silent as to what occurred” during those two years.
The judge then dismissed the second-degree murder and firearm charges against Weinschel with prejudice, meaning prosecutors can’t seek to refile them later.
Weinschel, 37, who has been held without bond since his February 2018 arrest, was expected to be released sometime Monday. He came to court in a wheelchair after having been assaulted by other inmates over the weekend, according to defense attorneys Emily Munn and Steven Mirman.
His brother, Zebulon Weinschel, 42, however, is still charged in the case and is awaiting trial.
Several relatives of the man the brothers are accused of killing — 26-year-old Joshua Sykes of Portsmouth — left the courtroom Monday angry and cursing.
Sykes was found dead in his home near Norfolk Naval Shipyard on Sept. 4, 2017. He’d been shot once in the head. The Weinschel brothers were arrested in Southampton County later that same day on drug and firearm charges, according to court records. They were soon linked to the Portsmouth slaying and charged in it several months later.
Alexander Weinschel agreed to testify against his brother and told investigators they’d gone to Sykes house to buy heroin. Alexander Weinschel said he was inside making the purchase when his brother came in, shot Sykes, and then threatened to shoot him if he didn’t help gather items from the house. They left with a wall safe, PlayStation game console and some jewelry.
Sykes’ relatives said they were upset with how the case has been handled since the beginning, and were particularly angry with the Portsmouth commonwealth’s attorney’s office and chief prosecutor Stephanie Morales.
A spokesperson for Morales’ office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
“Their office didn’t do their (expletive) job,” said Sykes’ uncle Kenneth Gainey. “They dropped the ball and they know they dropped the ball. She (Morales) needs to go.”
Gainey and his sister, Vickey Gainey, said prosecutors didn’t keep them adequately informed as the case dragged on. Kenneth Gainey said he’d frequently come to the courthouse to try to find out where things stood.
“All these years I thought this would eventually work out and we’d get justice,” Vickey Gainey said. “But all (prosecutors) did was shuffle it along and now look what happened. They were too lazy to file the necessary paperwork, and yet they’re still getting a paycheck.”
In felony cases in Virginia in which a defendant is ordered jailed until trial, the law states that a trial must be held within five months of the indictment date, unless the defendant waives their right to a speedy trial. Such waivers are frequently made so that the defense attorneys can have enough time to prepare, and further trial date continuances are also common.
But in Weinschel’s case, there was no record of him ever waiving his right to a speedy trial, Munn said, nor was there any record of him even being arraigned. Munn and Mirman didn’t get involved in the case until October, when Weinschel’s family hired them. Before that, he’d been represented by two different sets of court-appointed attorneys, the lawyers said.
The case is at least the third major felony case in Portsmouth in the past year that has been dismissed by a judge because of issues with the prosecution.
The first dismissal came in August and involved a woman charged with child abuse and other related charges after a fire broke out at an illegal daycare she was running and left several children injured. The other case involved a man accused of killing another man outside a strip club. In both cases, the judges ruled prosecutors had failed to turn over information to the defense in a timely manner.
Jane Harper, jane.harper@pilotonline.com
