A murder suspect may have her case dropped because cops in Homewood, Alabama allegedly “threw away” the weapons used to murder the victim.

AL.com reported that attorneys for Alexandria Nicole Davis, age 31, are asking for murder charges to be dropped after veteran Johnnie Will Anderson III, 30, was found strangled in his apartment.

Court records say that Anderson had both a necktie and a dog leash around his neck when he was found dead. The cause of death was determined to be homicide by strangulation.

Public Defenders Paul H. Rand and Sammie Shaw said the case against their client must be dropped because of the missing evidence.

“The dog leash and necktie are so critical to the defense as to make any trial without them fundamentally unfair,” Rand said in a motion to the court. “There is no other way, other than by the items themselves, to determine who was in contact with the necktie and dog leash – especially not during the time between Ms. Davis left the apartment and the body was discovered.”

Jefferson County Deputy District Attorney Jessica Hebson disagreed and argued that the case could proceed even without the murder weapons that were thrown away by the cops.

In a hearing on Monday, Jefferson County Circuit Judge Alaric May said that it might take up to two weeks to rule on the motion to dismiss.

“This was probably, in my 30 years of practicing and on the bench, the most deplorable handling of evidence I have ever seen,” the judge lamented, adding, “I have never seen anything like this.”

“And I will say, heads need to roll, because this decedent — I don’t care who was, in fact, the murderer, he deserved much better than what Homewood gave him,” May continued. “It’s put the state in a position they don’t deserve to be in, as well as the defense… And nobody bears that brunt except for Homewood Police Department.”

How did the evidence get thrown away?

According to the motion, evidence was collected at the scene on Sept. 10, 2021, where Anderson’s body was found, and the coroner’s office took possession of the body and items found on the body.

Police collected some of the items on Sept. 13, 2021, but no property report was prepared.
On Nov. 17, 2021, more items were collected from the coroner’s office and taken to police headquarters where they were placed in a biohazard bag and put in the property room. Those items included a necktie, dog leash, shirt, socks, shorts and a t-shirt.
Again, Rand contends, no property report was completed.
The biohazard bag remained in the property room until Feb. 1, 2022, when it was placed in a trash bag. That trash bag was taken to the dumpster at police headquarters on Feb. 4, 2022.
Testimony at the hearing indicated that police learned the evidence was missing, reviewed video footage and learned the evidence had been thrown away. An evidence technician had put the evidence near a bay door to air it out because of the odor, and it was mistaken as trash.