5 years, 8 months ago by Scott Hardy
Court rules Adams County jury was impartial, no need for change of venue
Convicted murderer Steson Crider has had his appeal of his 2015 conviction in Adams County, for the shooting of Ray Humphrey, Jr., rejected.
That unanimous ruling was handed down last week by the Illinois Fourth District Appellate Court. The judges found that Judge Robert Adrian was correct in denying Crider's request for a change of venue. The court found that, based on their answers during selection, the jury in the case was impartial. In his appeal, Crider had argued that the trial should have been moved from Adams County, due to pre-trial publicity. During arguments in front of the appellate court, Crider's lawyer Amanda Ingram said the jury was put in a situation it shouldn't have been in.
( Amanda Ingram :18 )
The appellate judges did agree with Ingram that Judge Adrian should not have allowed photos from social media sites of Crider posing with handguns, saying they weren't relevant. They added that the error was harmless, saying that due to the "overwhelming evidence" against Crider, it wasn't likely that the photos played a part in the jury’s verdict. Crider's serving a 65-year sentence in the Menard Correctional Center, after being convicted of shooting Humphrey while the boy was waiting for his mother to pick him up from a friends' home.
The full ruling is available to read below.
