MIAMI – A defense attorney asked the state on Friday to drop an attempted murder charge against her client because the sole witness in the case, who was also the victim, was killed last week.
Edtwon Bailey, now 16, is being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
Bailey is charged with the attempted murder of Jedediah "Eggo" Scatliffe, 18, who was shot in the leg Sept. 9 in the area of Northwest Fifth Avenue and Seventh Street.
Police said Scatliffe died last week after he was shot again while attending a wake in Overtown.
No one has been arrested in that case.
Bailey's public defender said the state now has no case against her client in the first shooting case.
Hilton Napoleon, the attorney for Parents of Murdered Kids for Miami-Dade County, is fighting to keep the case alive.
"I can tell you one thing for sure. I'm going to make sure that we have all the resources necessary to make sure the person who committed the crime is prosecuted, and make sure the people who are prosecuting have a relationship with the community so we can resolve this thing," Napoleon said.
Napoleon said Scatliffe's murder is an example of why new legislation that will protect witnesses can't come soon enough.
"We have to make sure that we have resources for these people, so they can relocate and feel comfortable so that when they walk into these doors, they're not going to end up in a box," he said.
The judge did not make a decision Friday as to whether the case should be dropped because of a lack of evidence.
Anyone with information about either shooting is asked to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.