MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) – It’s not often that a defense lawyer goes to court and asks a judge to reinstate a murder charge, but that’s exactly what happened Tuesday.
Mobile County Circuit Judge Brandy Hambright granted a request by an attorney for Haratio Donzell Stewart, 34, to reconsider her ruling from last month allowing prosecutors to drop murder and attempted murder charges against Stewart stemming from a shooting at Maison De Ville apartments on Christmas Eve in 2023.
The August dismissal came under a legal procedure known as a “nol pros,” which allows prosecutors to re-file charges at any point. Prosecutors said at the time that they were concerned the judge would prohibit them from using a picture form a license plate reader – evidence crucial to the case – and that disallowing it would be “fatal” to their efforts to prove that Stewart shot Jabyron Nettles to death and wounded Jelaysia Smith…