via Webex
S-20-0720 State v. Keith P. Coomes (Appellant)
Dawes County District Court, Hon. Travis O’Gorman
Attorneys: Jordan Osborne (Office of the Attorney General, for Appellee) --- Andrew M. Pope & Amy L. Patras (Crites, Shaffer, Connealy Watson Patras & Watson, PC LLO, for Appellant)
Criminal: Speedy trial; Absolute discharge; Assault
Proceedings Below: Following a mistrial, the district court overruled Appellant’s motion for absolute discharge.
Issues on Appeal: Whether the district court 1) plainly erred and violated the Appellant’s due process rights when it shifted the burden of proof from the State to the Appellant to show that one or more of the excludable time periods under Neb. Rev. Stat. §29-1207 applied; 2) erred in applying the speedy trial calculations in this case and in excluding the entire time from October 22, 2019 through April 7, 2020; 3) erred in excluding the time from January 17, 2020 to February 11, 2020, when the court, on its own motion, removed Appellant’s privately retained attorney and continued the pretrial conference without the knowledge or consent of the Appellant and without advising the Appellant of his speedy trial rights and the effect of his consent; 4) erred in excluding the time period between March 10 and April 7, 2020, as there was no period of delay and if there was a period of delay, there was insufficient evidence to find that the delay was due to Appellant’s counsel needing time to be brought up to speed on Appellant’s case; and 5) erred in denying the motion even if it properly excluded the time period between March 10 and April 7, 2020 from the speedy trial calculation because the time to bring Appellant to trial had expired before he filed his motion for absolute discharge.