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We got him? Charges dismissed against Merritt

Posted at 10:09 AM, Apr 25, 2016
and last updated 2016-04-26 00:01:52-04

We got him?

Jason Lamm, the attorney for accused freeway shooter Leslie Merritt Jr., announced all charges have formally been dismissed against Merritt.

The tweet by Lamm showed the motion to dismiss all charges officially filed by the Superior Court of Arizona.

The motion reads: “This Court having reviewed and considered the State’s Motion to Dismiss Without Prejudice. filed April 22, 2015, and good cause appearing. IT IS ORDERED dismissing this case without prejudice.”
 

Merritt will not be under the supervision of pretrial services.

The Arizona Department of Public Safety told ABC15 on Monday: "We are not entertaining any interviews or statements at this time. Please check back with us in the future."

Merritt was released from jail last week after a judge reduced his bond to $0.

RELATED: Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey responds to Merritt's release

Merritt was arrested in August and indicted on 15 felony counts in connection with several of the 11 confirmed shootings which happened on Valley freeways last year. DPS officials said they had ballistic evidence tying him to four shooting incidents on Interstate 10 which happened between August 27 and 29.

Merritt entered a plea of not guilty, and his lawyers have challenged the strength of the state's evidence against him, pointing out officials altered the timeline of when they occurred, and accused DPS of lying to witnesses and withholding evidence .

Merritt and his lawyers filed a lawsuit last month against the State of Arizona, Maricopa County, Gov. Doug Ducey and Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery for $10 million in compensation for lost wages, legal fees and emotional stress .

"If you can use the state's evidence against them, that sometimes can be just devastating to a prosecution," said Diaz.