Attorney wants murder charge dropped in heroin death

A Madison County public defender is asking a judge to throw out a drug-induced murder charge against an alleged drug dealer because the heroin that killed Joshua Rogers was delivered and injected in Missouri.

Public defender John Rekowski said as far he knows, no element of the crime occurred in Illinois.

"This crime has no connection to the state of Illinois and Madison County," Rekowski said. "... Dying over here isn't against the law."

The state's attorney's office begs to differ, and on Tuesday the motion to dismiss is scheduled to come before Associate Judge James Hackett.

Rekowski's office is representing Adam C. Butler, 41, of St. Louis, who is one of three people charged with delivering the heroin that killed Rogers, 30, of East Alton. A coroner's inquest determined that Rogers died May 10 of an accidental overdose of heroin.

State's attorney spokeswoman Stephanee Smith cited an Illinois statute that allows the prosecution to charge the defendant in the county where the crime is consummated even if the crime starts outside the state. In this case, Rogers received the heroin in St. Louis and took it there but died in a Godfrey motel, Madison County's Sheriff's Detective Brian Koberna testified at Rogers' inquest.

Madison County prosecutors can try the case because Rogers died in Madison County, said William Schroeder, a law professor at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

"One very important element didn't happen in Missouri," Schroeder said. "That's the bottom line. A very important element happened over here."

Butler could be tried in Missouri, too, even if he is acquitted in Illinois, Schroeder said.

Rogers' girlfriend, Angela R. Halliday, reported Rogers' death to authorities and was later charged along with Brian D. Beckham, 32, of East Alton, with drug-induced murder.

Halliday funded the heroin purchase with money she made from selling her prescribed Xanax, the Madison County sheriff's Department said. Beckham drove Rogers on May 9 to North St. Louis County, where the heroin was allegedly purchased from Butler.

Halliday, 28, of Moro, also faces an additional drug-induced murder charge in connection with the heroin overdose of a 27-year-old Worden man who died about a month before Rogers.

Koberna testified that Rogers took the heroin in Missouri before returning to the Redwood Motel, where he died in a room he shared with Halliday.

Similar motions to dismiss have not been filed in Beckham's and Halliday's cases. Beckham's attorney declined to comment, and Halliday's attorney did not return a call for comment.

All three defendants are being held in the Madison County Jail.

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