CHARLESTON, W.Va. – A Kanawha County murder trial scheduled for next month is being delayed.
Kanawha County Circuit Judge Carrie Webster granted a continuance Thursday in the case of Joshua Scales, the Hyattsville, Maryland, man accused of fatally shooting Ethan Chic-Colbert on Elizabeth Street in Charleston last January. The prosecution requested the delay because the lead detective in the case is not available to testify on the previously scheduled date of May 4.
Scales allegedly shot Chic-Colbert multiple times as he sat in a parked car on the city’s East End. He is charged with first-degree murder.
The trial has been rescheduled to begin with jury selection June 5.
The defense presented two motions during the hearing, including one to throw out Scales’ indictment entirely. Attorney Ashley Lockwood argued that the prosecution presented evidence to the grand jury improperly, warranting the indictment’s dismissal.
Kanawha County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Jordan Gunnoe rebutted that assertion in her arguments, and, ultimately, Judge Webster ruled that the defense did not meet the threshold of evidence to dismiss the indictment.
Lockwood also presented a motion to set bail for his client, calling on testimony from Scales’ cousin with whom he would live on home confinement if released. That motion was also denied.