FORT SMITH -- A Sebastian County circuit judge said he will rule today on a motion to prohibit pretrial publicity in the first-degree murder case of a man accused of shooting a passing jogger.
In a brief hearing Wednesday, Dan Stewart, an attorney for John Suleski, told Judge Stephen Tabor that he wants the media and public barred specifically from access to Suleski's confession in the case file about the July shooting, the video of his confession, photos of the victim at the scene and autopsy photos.
Tabor began the hearing by telling Stewart and Prosecuting Attorney Dan Shue that he normally reviews the file and decides what parts of it should be sealed. After Shue said he has received requests from news organizations for access to his office's file, Tabor said he would make the review as quickly as possible.
Suleski, 25, of Barling is accused of killing 44-year-old Brent Morrison of Fort Smith as he jogged down a road at Chaffee Crossing in Fort Smith early on July 11.
Police reports said Suleski admitted shooting Morrison from the back seat of his car, which was parked off the road, at a time when he was thinking of shooting himself over marital problems.
He also is charged with first-degree unlawful discharge of a firearm from a vehicle, a felony.
At the time of the shooting, Suleski was a sergeant with the Arkansas Air National Guard's 188th Wing in the public affairs office. He is also a Marine veteran.
A preliminary report of an autopsy performed July 13 at the state Crime Laboratory in Little Rock said Morrison had nine bullet wounds in the back of the head, upper abdomen, central back, right back and flank, and the back of his upper right leg.
A man who was jogging at Chaffee Crossing about 5:45 a.m. July 11 told police he saw a Chevrolet HHR driving from side to side on Wells Lake Road, where the shooting occurred, as if looking for a place to pull over. The car finally pulled onto an access road.
Another man, who called police about 7:15 a.m. after spotting Morrison's body on the side of Wells Lake Road, told police he saw Suleski emerge from the Chevrolet HHR parked nearby and that Suleski had told him that he had just arrived and didn't know what happened.
Stewart wrote in his motion to prohibit pretrial publicity, filed July 23, that the case has drawn widespread news coverage and that the release of further information is likely to prejudice his client's chances of getting an impartial jury and thus a fair trial.
He asked in the motion that all officials involved in the case -- attorneys and their staff members, law enforcement officers and Crime Lab personnel -- refrain from commenting to the media about the case. He also asked that the investigative file on the case be sealed.
In a response to Stewart's motion filed in Circuit Court the same day, Shue wrote that the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act requires disclosure of records of an investigation that is completed and no longer ongoing.
He also wrote that prior restraint is a government restriction on free speech and quoted a 2006 Arkansas Supreme Court case, Helena Daily World v. Simes, that said, in part, courts often find that prior restraint violates the First Amendment.
State Desk on 09/03/2015