Experienced prosecutor helps with backlog of murder cases

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Morley Swingle has been working as an assistant prosecuting attorney in Boone County for two weeks.

Boone County Prosecutor Dan Knight brought Swingle to Boone County to help train staff and to help with a backlog of murder cases.

"Well, I think we're right around 30 still but we're working on that, plugging away at these things. Of course, hoping we don't get any more and so we'll just have to see. But I guarantee you Morley already has had a positive impact on what's going with these cases and he will continue to have a positive impact," Knight said.

Swingle said Friday he has already been assigned to 15 cases, five of which are murder cases.

"I've spent most of the first two weeks reading the police reports and getting familiar with the facts. And I've already arranged to go to a jail and work with a witness about giving us information to testify in a homicide case," Swingle said.

Swingle charged one woman with second-degree murder Friday, and had already helped Knight research the Joseph Elledge case who had been charged with first-degree murder earlier in the week.

Knight said Swingle's unique experience in the field has already been helpful and boosted office morale.

"That's the thing about Morley really that makes him kind of special, is that, not only can he try a case, but he also is definitely a legal scholar," Knight said.

Knight said he hopes both he and Swingle get the chance to get in the courtroom and try cases in the coming months.