Judge Barry Steelman is seen in this file photo.Two men saw murder charges against them dismissed and one man pleaded guilty to a drunken driving vehicular homicide charge all within about 15 minutes in the same Criminal Court on Thursday.
Prosecutors asked Judge Barry Steelman to dismiss murder charges against Devante Stoudemire, 20, and Tyrone Carmichael, 23, in back-to-back hearings. Following those two hearings Bryant Houston, 38, pleaded guilty to DUI, two counts of vehicular assault and one count of vehicular homicide.
Witness dies
Steelman’s ruling on Stoudemire’s charges allows for prosecutors to bring charges again if they find new evidence in the Nov. 19, 2010, shooting death of JerMichael Richardson.
A key witnesses died in a Florida car crash as Stoudemire awaited trial. Police arrested Stoudemire along with two other men on a separate murder charge in the July 2 shooting death of Steven Mosley, 38.