Coronavirus: Murder case hearing continued as lawyer must stay at home

Carlos Blanton

Carlos Blanton

As local judges try to keep the justice system moving amid the coronavirus outbreak, not every hearing has been immune.

A suppression of evidence hearing in the murder case against Carlos Blanton in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court was supposed to be heard Thursday but was continued after a prosecutor in the case couldn’t make the hearing because of a COVID-19 quarantine.

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“As a result of the current pandemic, co-counsel, who has been out of the state of Ohio recently, is currently under recommended orders from the governor of the state of Ohio to remain at home for the next two weeks,” the motion to continue filed by the prosecutor’s office says. “As such, she is unavailable for the hearing.”

Blanton is accused in the killing of Tevin Million in June 2018. Million was robbed and shot multiple times, according to the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office.

The prosecutor said that Blanton is incarcerated in the Montgomery County Jail, but is currently serving a 77-day sentence in an unrelated case.

A new hearing date was set for April 9. It’s then the court is expected to hear arguments around whether police obtained evidence in the case illegally.

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The suppression motion says observations by the police should be barred from use because the defense believes “the officer lacked reasonable suspicion upon which to stop, detain and arrest the defendant and overall lacked probable cause to arrest the defendant…”

The defense is also asking that evidence collected via a search warrant and any statements made by Blanton to police be tossed.

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