5 years, 9 months ago by Scott Hardy
Expected to plead Guilty to one count of Murder in 2015 death
A Quincy man, held for over two and a half years while awaiting trial on a 2015 murder charge, will now enter a plea on Friday, in a deal with the prosecution.
Derek McKenzie was in Adams County Circuit Court Tuesday for a plea hearing, four days after waiving his right to a jury. Court records show that the hearing was delayed to Friday. McKenzie was due to go on trial starting next Monday. At a hearing last Friday, a defense motion to have his confession, made just after his arrest in December 2015, thrown out was rejected. McKenzie's expected to plead Guilty to one of two counts of 1st Degree Murder. In return, a second murder count will be dropped, and McKenzie will then likely be sentenced after the plea. McKenzie is accused of beating Billy Graham to death with his fists, and a clamp, in an apartment above a Quincy bar.
He's been in the Adams County Jail since his late 2015 arrest, and is being held on $5 million bond.
