Murder charge dismissed ahead of trial after 6 years

ATMORE, Ala. (AP) — Capital murder charges have been dropped against a south Alabama man after a six-year wait to bring the case to trial.

Yeldon Rostchild, 29, was released from jail on Wednesday, WPMI -TV reported, after Rostchild pleaded guilty to an obstruction of justice charge as part of a plea deal with prosecutors.

Rostchild was one of two people who had been charged with capital murder in connection with the 2017 shooting death of Donta Russell in Escambia County, Alabama. The case was scheduled to go to trial this week.

Rostchild’s attorney had asked a judge to dismiss the indictment. She wrote in a court filing that prosecutors in six years have produced no evidence linking him to the shooting death or are disobeying “this court’s order to produce said evidence.”

“It’s not a matter of evidence from the state. This is a matter of it didn’t exist. This man’s been in jail for six years,” defense attorney Christine C. Hernandez told the television station.

Escambia County District Attorney Stephen Billy told the station in an email that they amended the capital murder charge “by agreement to an obstruction of justice charge.”

“Anytime a case is this old the evidence tends to weaken and that was the case here. We settled on time served,” he said.