John McGehee is defending his decision to dismiss murder charges against a Davenport man who's now accused of killing a second person. Initially, the Rock Island County State's Attorney charged Yolanduis McDuffie and Aaron Henderson with killing Derek Jackson in late 2013.
McGehee says last winter, he dismissed the charge against McDuffie because of a lack of evidence. He and his staff decided to prosecute Henderson first and then use his testimony against McDuffie.
Henderson was found guilty and is serving a 40-year prison sentence. If McDuffie had gone on trial and was found not guilty, the prosecution wouldn't have another chance to try him for Jackson's murder. After the gun involved in the crime was found, McGehee re-filed the murder charge on August 26th, 2015.
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Last week, McDuffie was already being held in the Scott County Jail on other charges when he was charged with the murder of James Goode early last April. His preliminary hearing is set for Wednesday.