The Garden City Telegram
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Floyd trial pushed back to March
Published 11/1/2007 in News : Police By Rachel Davis
The retrial of husband and wife Chad and Shannon Floyd of Stanton County has been rescheduled a second time for March so the parties can determine if the state can call a Kansas Bureau of Investigation lab technician as an expert witness.
The Floyds are accused of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the alleged killing of 27-year-old Michael Golub, Shannon Floyd's ex-boyfriend, in May 2005. Golub disappeared May 20, 2005, on his way to pick up his son, Mikey, who he had with Shannon.
Chief Judge Jack Lively said Wednesday the trial has been pushed back to 9 a.m. March 31.
Initially the trial was scheduled for Jan. 21, but Richard Guinn, lead prosecutor assigned to the case by the state Attorney General's office, needed more time to prepare for the second trial. The trial was moved again to 9 a.m. Feb. 25, only to be continued a second time.
The Floyds, along with their attorneys Dane Monnat and Kurt Kerns, appeared in court Wednesday in Wichita to discuss pretrial motions.
Lively said the Floyds waived their right to a speedy trial and the prosecution did not file a motion for change of venue.
The retrial will take place in Stanton County.
The next pretrial hearing is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Dec. 6 in Topeka. At this hearing, the state is expected to endorse a KBI lab technician as an expert witness. However, the defense will get the opportunity to challenge the endorsement. If the defense is successful, the prosecution will not be able to call the lab technician as a witness in the retrial.
Lively said the pretrial hearings were moved out of convenience for all those involved -- both defense attorneys, Kerns and Monnat, are from Wichita; the prosecution is out of Topeka and Lively lives in Coffeyville.
The initial trial ended July 27 with a hung jury, as jurors could not reach an agreement on a verdict.
The prosecution's case in the initial trial centered on the custody of Mikey and the extremes the Floyds would go to keep residential custody of the boy.
Guinn said in opening and closing statements that the Floyds had devised a plan to get rid of Golub, starting with a $50,000 bank stock purchase. According to Guinn, the Floyds told family members the $50,000 would be used to pay Golub off in exchange for relinquishing his parental rights.
According to testimony, the money was sent to Western State Bank in Ulysses and an account opened under the name Michael R.L. Golub, aka "Mikey." Guinn said Shannon Floyd then wrote a check from her First National Bank account in Johnson City May 6, 2005, payable to Michael Golub for $49,000, but the check was never endorsed, though it had cleared the bank.
In closing statements, defense attorneys said the prosecution's case was circumstantial and the Floyds were unfairly targeted.
Defense attorneys said in their opening statements that the prosecution could not prove Golub was dead -- they had no body and no murder weapon. Also mentioned in opening statements was Golub's admission to a friend of disappearing the weekend of May 20, 2005, and his prior drug use.
The Floyds are free on $1 million bond each and now living in Colorado.
Depending on a person's criminal history, if convicted, first-degree murder can carry a term of life imprisonment, and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder can carry a prison term of nine to 41 years.
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