Williamson County DA Jana Duty Won't Prosecute High-Profile Murder Case

WILLIAMSON COUNTY, TX -- District Attorney Jana Duty will recuse herself from prosecuting a capital murder case from which evidence was withheld from the defense, leading to her spending time in jail for contempt of court and fighting two lawsuits to remove her from office.

District Judge Rick Kennon agreed that someone else -- perhaps Assistant Texas Attorney General Nancy Nemer -- should serve as the prosecutor in the Crispin Harmel murder case, according to an order filed Thursday reported in the Austin American-Statesman.

Harmel is accused of Jessica Kalaher in 2009 after following her out to a Walmart parking lot in Cedar Park. Harmel's first trial in 2014 ended in a mistrial after prosecutors revealed halfway through the trial that security camera footage had time stamps showing the timeline of events, as the Statesman reported. But those time stamps had not been provided to the defense team, and were in disagreement with the chronology presented by Harmel's attorneys as a result.

Consequently, Harmel's case resulted in a mistrial, prompting Harmel's lawyers to appeal his case while arguing he couldn't be retried because of double jeopardy, although they lost their appeal, the Statesman reported. Harmel now faces a second trial on an undetermined date, a hearing for which is scheduled at 9 a.m. on Oct. 18. Duty will not be prosecuting on that trial, it was determined.

>>> Read the full story at Austin American-Statesman

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