Freeway shooter appears in court, judge denies motion

The accused freeway shooter, Leslie Merritt Junior was back in court Friday. The case is now headed to trial.

The judge denied a defense motion to bring the case back to the grand jury, so now the case will move forward and go to trial so a jury can decide Merritt's fate.

Meanwhile, the defense is claiming that the Arizona Department of Public Safety has not been forthcoming with turning over evidence.

Merritt Jr. is the accused trigger-man in 4/11 freeway shootings that terrorized Valley drivers last year. His attorneys claim prosecutors misled a grand jury which indicted Merritt on more than 12 felony counts.

"The defendants right to due process were violated by a presentation that was incomplete, to the point of misleading, you can't take letters A and Z and say this is the alphabet, that is all they did," said a defense attorney.

Judge Warren Granville denied the defense motion to have the case sent back to the grand jury. The case will now go to trial this Summer. The judge also heard allegations that DPS and prosecutors are not providing them with evidence promptly.

"There have been difficulties, there have been unusual delays, reports have been buried by investigators so that records cannot locate them," said the attorney.

The judge ordered the state to turn over certain reports of other freeway shooting investigations and other key pieces of evidence within 30 days.

"It is our intent to show that the DPS has ignored other criminal freeway shootings by not investigating them at all, or simply dismissing them as irrelevant. Why? Because now that Mr. Merritt is in custody it would be inconvenient to their case to see that someone else is responsible," said the attorney.

The trial is set for June 9, and it may be a long trial, defense attorneys estimate it will take 6-8 weeks.