With the trial date one month away, Thomas and Kaprise Sledge and their attorneys attended a hearing Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Cleveland in the March 2, 2024, murder of U.S. Postal Service carrier Jonte Davis, 33, on Warren’s north side.
They “indicated that they will maintain their pleas of not guilty and go to trial as scheduled” Aug. 17, according to court documents.
Kaprise Sledge, 25, of Warren, and Thomas Sledge, 46, of Youngstown, are charged with murder of a federal employee and discharging a firearm during a violent crime in the 1:44 p.m. homicide. If convicted, both could receive life in prison, but not the death penalty.
In recent months, the focus of the case has been several motions filed by the attorneys for the Sledges. Judge Donald C. Nugent is presiding over the case.
In March, federal prosecutors filed responses to defense motions that asked for prosecutors to turn over information that might help or hurt their case, information regarding the defendants’ history and background, and information regarding confidential informants or cooperating witnesses.
Another issue the defense has raised deals with cellphone locational information that law enforcement obtained through a search warrant. Such information can indicate the location of a person’s cellphone at various points in time, a useful tool for suggesting whether a cellphone or various cellphones belonging to a suspect were in close proximity to a crime scene at the time the crime was committed.
But the courts have set limits on how such data can be used against a defendant, citing the Fourth Amendment right of people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.
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