Andy McCauley Jr., the man accused of the murder of 15-year old Riley Crossman, will appear in Morgan County Magistrate Court on June 12 at 2 p.m. for a preliminary hearing.
The preliminary hearing will determine whether there is probable cause to charge McCauley with murder.
McCauley is being represented by S. Andrew Arnold of Arnold & Bailey in Martinsburg.
The case will be heard before Magistrate Judge Richard Stephens.
Morgan County Prosecuting Attorney Dan James will represent the state of West Virginia.
The West Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has yet to complete the autopsy report. The Medical Examiner’s office would not answer questions about why the autopsy has yet to be completed and turned over to law enforcement.
The Medical Examiner even refused to answer a simple question — what date was the Riley Crossman autopsy completed?
A spokesperson for the Medical Examiner said that “West Virginia law only allows for the release of autopsy information to next of kin and law enforcement.”
But the law in question only pertains to the autopsy “investigation and findings” not the date that the autopsy was completed.
A Freedom of Information Act request was filed seeking an answer to the question — when was the autopsy completed?
But that simple request was denied.
If on June 12, Magistrate Stephens finds probable cause, then the case will be handed over to a state grand jury. The grand jury’s next term will be in September. Morgan County Sheriff K.C. Bohrer says he doesn’t believe the case will go to trial until sometime in 2020.
While prosecutors have a working theory as to why and how McCauley killed Crossman, that theory and evidence supporting it probably won’t be revealed until trial.
At the preliminary hearing on June 12, it is unlikely that the state will make public any evidence beyond what is laid out in the criminal complaint filed by the Morgan County Sheriff’s office.