Mishandled evidence leads to the dismissal of the murder case
ST. LOUIS – Defendant Levi Henning will no longer be charged with the first-degree murder of former Parkway student Carieal Doss.
FOX 2 asked the St. Louis Attorney’s Office on March 14 why the case wasn’t on the court records. We found out why on Thursday when we appeared in court.
We originally reported on the murder behind a Baptist church in 2020. Doss was found shot to the head on a sidewalk on Franklin Avenue in April of that year. The 18-year-old student was about to graduate from Parkway West High School. FOX 2 has now learned that the murder charges against the defendant have been dropped after prosecutors allegedly failed to produce any evidence.
“There are only two ways this can happen; One is gross negligence,” said W. David Mueller, Henning’s attorney. “It is a willful denial of my client’s constitutional rights.”
Mueller was in court with the intention of arguing his motion for dismissal until the case was dropped. In his earlier files, he pointed out that the state failed to disclose evidence including at least eight witnesses, a DNA report, the victim’s Facebook messages and friend contacts.
“I have identified four alternative suspects in my short time on this case,” Mueller said. “One where there’s a fair amount of evidence against her. Three others, I believe, had contact with the deceased shortly before her death. None have never been interviewed.”
Mueller also claimed, “On April 8, 2022, the state finally amended the discovery for the fourth time, providing the full DNA report … and 2,356 pages of Facebook records it had in its possession as of June 9, 2020.”
He said prosecutors’ failures may have cost the state to solve this crime.
“The government was in their possession before this case was even filed,” Mueller said. “Information that the deceased was in contact with people five blocks from where she was found. These people were never interviewed. I believe if they had been questioned they could have found a better timeline for what happened to the deceased that day and probably solved this case.”
FOX 2 reached out to Doss’ mother, who said she didn’t want to talk about it just yet.
Henning remains in custody as he still faces robbery charges over another incident in 2018.
The district attorney’s office now says they are looking into it to give us a possible answer.
https://fox2now.com/news/missouri/mishandled-evidence-leads-to-murder-case-dismissal/ Mishandled evidence leads to the dismissal of the murder case
