A judge is to announce his decision on February 25th on whether 46-year old Mason Shannon of Iowa should still face an involuntary manslaughter charge for an Ottawa man’s death. Shannon’s attorneys say the prosecution bungled the case–so badly that a retrial couldn’t be a fair trial. They’re also claiming there wasn’t enough evidence to convict Shannon of choking 32-year old Michael Castelli to death.
Kankakee County Judge William Erickson is considering the arguments for and against dismissing the charges. A LaSalle County judge convicted Shannon in 2018, but Shannon’s lawyers later claimed a possible conflict of interest on the judge’s part. That led to the conviction being dismissed and the case being reset to pre-trial status.