Evidence test for suspected teen killer delayed

DOTHAN, Ala. (WTVY) -A judge has delayed a preliminary hearing that will detail the hours leading up to a pregnant teen’s death.

Marquis McCloud was due in court on June 9 to face two Capital Murder charges in a first test of evidence.

However, Houston County District Judge Benjamin Lewis rescheduled that hearing until July 14 at the request of prosecutors.

According to a motion, because of a prior obligation Sheriff’s Sgt. Ricky Herring, the lead investigator, could not testify on June 9, when Judge Lewis first scheduled the hearing.

Officers charged McCloud, 33, with murdering 19-year-old Anastasia Gilley and her four-month-old fetus, their bodies found in Dothan on May 10.

She had disappeared from her Greenwood, Florida home one week earlier.

Gilley had been shot multiple times and Houston County Sheriff Donald Valenza estimated she had died five days earlier.

McCloud is charged with murdering Gilley and her child.

A preliminary hearing determines whether evidence is sufficient to move the felony cases to a grand jury.

Watch: Sheriff discusses McCloud’s murder case

Perhaps the only witness, Herring must convince Judge Lewis there is enough evidence that McCloud is the killer for him to forward the case to a Houston County Grand Jury.

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