District attorney Eddie Jordan waited too long to retry a man on murder charges and the case probably will be thrown out, a state judge said Monday.

WWL-TV

District Attorney Eddie Jordan

Although Jordan insisted he had two years from June 5, 2006 -- the time criminal jury trials resumed after Hurricane Katrina, Judge Lynda Van Davis disagreed, and said a jury trial could have been held as early as January 2006.

Van Davis on Monday told Jordan that state law allows only one year for retrial, and even with the extra three months moratorium on trials declared by Gov. Kathleen Blanco after Katrina, the DA's office had waited too long to retry Rudy Francis.

Francis, whose first trial ended in a hung jury June 1, 2004, asked the judge to quash another trial, saying his right to a speedy trial was denied. Although Van Davis gave the state another day to try to persuade her, she said she was ready to rule in Francis' favor.

Assistant district attorney Michael Morales asked the judge to allow Francis' trial to start immediately and rule on the motion to quash when it was finished.

"That would be a waste of judicial resources," Van Davis said.

Francis was charged with murdering his business partner, Larry Lawrence, in August 2000. Francis shot Lawrence eight times and accidentally wounded himself, according to police.

Jordan spent more than an hour on the stand Monday answering questions from Van Davis and Francis' lawyer, Jason Williams, about delays in starting jury trials after the hurricane. Although judges held court and non-jury trials were conducted, Jordan insisted it was all but impossible to stage jury trials before June.

"It would have been difficult, if not impossible, to impanel a pool of people to select a jury from," Jordan said.

But Beverly Richards, who supervised jury selection in December 2005 -- when Blanco's moratorium expired -- said a pool of 300 people was available at that time and juries were selected from it. A grand jury was impaneled and a separate jury was selected for a trial in Van Davis court. The trial was canceled because witnesses had not returned to the city, she said.

"I know there were jurors available," Van Davis said. "Those people that showed up for a grand jury could have served as a petit jury. It would have been difficult, it would have taxed us, but we could have done it."

The judge's intention to throw out the case was not a surprise, said Dane Ciolino, a professor at Loyola University's College of Law.

"All these cases lingering after Katrina present a straightforward application of the law. Judges have bent over backward to give the DA time to bring them to trial," Ciolino said.

"But the district attorney seems to think Katriana has either changed or suspended all the rules."

Although Jordan said he did not know of other cases in danger of being thrown out because of delays in bringing them to trial, Ciolino said he thought it would happen again.

"There are certainly more cases out there like this, probably many more," Ciolino said.

In September, state Judge Julian Parker threw out the first-degree murder charge against Eric McCormick. McCormick was indicted Oct. 17, 2002, his trial later that year ended in a hung jury. A defendant in a capital murder case under state law must be tried within three years of the indictment or one year after a mistrial.

Jordan said his office did not believe the deadline for retrying McCormick had passed and his office was in the process of appealing the ruling when McCormick died.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)