Jury trial delayed in murder case

A jury trial set to begin Jan. 21 has been postponed in the case against Quentin Porter, Jr. of Bloomington, charged in connection with the July 2024 shooting death of Malik Darea Sims.

The body of Sims was discovered off of Stephenson Road near the Owen-Monroe county line by a passerby on July 15th of last year. An autopsy later revealed the cause of death to be a single gunshot wound to the head.

The death was ruled a homicide by the examining pathologist.

A final pretrial conference was held Jan. 10, where Porter's attorneys Jacob Fish and Megan Schueler motioned for a continuance in the case.

According to the case summary available online at mycase.IN.gov, Owen County Prosecuting Attorney Benjamin Kim and Chief Deputy Prosecutor Parker Trulock objected to the continuance, which was ultimately granted by the court when the defense waived Criminal Rule 4.

Criminal Rule 4, pertaining to the impact of a delay in criminal trials, states in part, "if a defendant is detained in jail on a pending charge, a trial must be commenced no later than 180 days from the date the criminal charge against the defendant is filed, or from the date of arrest on such charge, whichever is later."

The court vacated the jury trial set for Jan. 21 and established a final motions hearing for Apr. 11 at 9 a.m., allotting eight days for the jury trial now set for May 12 to 21, excluding Saturday and Sunday.

A more in-depth article on the case, as detailed in the probable cause affidavit, was published in the Aug. 2024 issue of The Owen News.