Published: 07/31/2007
Judge threatens to release gun suspect over delay in tests By Julie Manganis Staff writer
SALEM - A judge is threatening to release a former Salem High student charged with bringing a gun to school last May unless prosecutors can come up with ballistics tests by Monday to prove the gun was a working firearm.
Jurgen Llanaj, 17, has been in custody since his May 7 arrest, deemed a danger to the public. The order is good for 90 days.
Yesterday, Llanaj's 85th day in custody, his lawyer asked Judge Robert Cornetta to consider releasing Llanaj because prosecutors still have not received a report on the gun from the state police crime lab. One of the elements prosecutors must prove is that the gun was a working firearm at the time it was brought into the school.
Llanaj's lawyer, Cesar Archilla, argued that he's not convinced the gun was functional because it was reported stolen from a gun repair shop in Pennsylvania months before it was found in a backpack at Salem High School.
"There is a real, live issue as to whether this is a working firearm," Archilla said yesterday, "because if it isn't, these charges are going away."
Police and prosecutors believe that the gun was functional but have been unable to get the state police to complete the testing - essentially, a test firing of the Beretta handgun - and report, despite an earlier request from Cornetta to expedite the testing.
Prosecutor Maura Bailey urged the judge not to release Llanaj, saying that at this point, nothing in the case has changed in the defendant's favor.
Bailey also pointed to Llanaj's juvenile record and police suspicions that Llanaj has gang ties. While the judge denied Archilla's request to release Llanaj yesterday, he warned the prosecutor that on Aug. 6, "I want ballistics." He also asked for more information about a line in the police report that indicates police did not find Llanaj's fingerprints on the gun.
Cornetta had already ordered prosecutors to request that the report be expedited on May 31.
"If I don't have that information on Aug. 6 I'm going to consider the defendant's request for ... bail," Cornetta said.
Salem Police Department spokesman Lt. Conrad Prosniewski said delays in ballistics reports are not unusual and that it usually takes longer than three months to get results from the state lab.
State Executive Office of Public Safety chief of staff Michael Coelho referred questions about how long a ballistics test normally takes to the Essex County District Attorney's Office, which relies on the state police lab to conduct those tests.
But Karen Dawley, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office, said she does not have that information.
Llanaj, who was a junior at Salem High, was arrested and expelled from school after the gun was discovered in a backpack.
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