Crime & Safety
Sunrise Beauty Homicide, Robbery Pretrial Postponed
Both defendants in the case will appear back in 19th District Court May 13 after attorneys cite reasons for adjournment.
A pretrial hearing set for Friday morning for the defendants in the case of the robbery and murder was rescheduled for both men, but for different reasons.
Detroit residents Tanaka Wells, 19, and Ronnie Matthews, 18, are both being charged for the , 60-year-old Jay Shin, as well as the robbery of his store. If convicted, both men face up to life in prison.
Vincent Toussaint, an attorney at the Detroit-based law offices of Diallo Cromer Toussaint Posey & Polk PLLC, stood in for his associate, Larry Polk, to represent Matthews at in front of Judge Richard Wygonik.
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Toussaint said both he and Polk had a “conflict of interest” in representing Matthews and that the young man would have to find new representation. The reasons for the conflict were not discussed in court, but Wygonik granted the request, saying there was just cause for it.
In the case of Wells, court-appointed attorney Adil Haradhvala requested an adjournment due to evidence and paperwork on the case that had just come into his possession the day of the pretrial hearing.
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Haradhvala said that there were six references to surveillance video allegedly of Wells and 150 pages of documentation on the case, none of which he had a chance to review before stepping into the courtroom Friday morning.
“Those have to be carefully viewed, Judge,” Haradhvala told Wygonik of the videos. “Those were received just today.”
The attorney added that there was no reason for the delay in receiving the evidence, other than the expected time taken in any cases.
“This is normal,” Haradhvala said of the fact that he had just received the evidence that day. “I’ve never heard of a case where they get all the evidence on the first day.”
Due to scheduling conflicts between the prosecuting attorney, head officer in the cases and the courts, the pretrial hearing for both defendants will not resume until May 13 at 1:30 p.m., again before Judge Wygonik.
In addition to the defendants and attorneys, the courtroom Friday morning was full of family members and friends of Wells and Matthews. Many stayed after the short court hearing, discussing the case outside of the courthouse and talking with Haradhvala.
