Keavonte Nesby’s hearing on charges of two counts of first degree murder in the death of 18-year old SIU student Keshanna Jackson takes place Wednesday Sept. 4 at 2 p.m. at the Jackson County Courthouse.
“We just started this process. So once they appear before the court, we have 90 days to do a trial if the defendant invokes his or her speedy trial rights,” Jackson County State’s Attorney Joe Cervantez said. “Now he is not detained for this offense because he is currently in the Illinois Department of Corrections from a gun charge.”
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His first hearing is where he’ll be read his rights, his charges, if he wants to hire a public defender and when it’s over a preliminary hearing will be scheduled.
“Preliminary hearing date has to be held within 30 days if he is held on those charges, or 60 days if he’s not,” Cervantez said. “The preliminary hearing is just a probable cause hearing, so at that point the court will do a hearing.”
Jackson died on August 22, 2021 when hit by gunfire at a party on 501 West Cherry Street. Police responded and Jackson was transported immediately to the Memorial Hospital of Carbondale with a life threatening gun wound. Her life was lost after full efforts of the hospital were exhausted.
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The Carbondale Police Department held a news conference on Aug.14, 2024 with Attorney Cervantez and Chief police officer Stan Reno on the investigation that took place for Jackson’s case.
They spoke about hundreds of interviews with witnesses and suspects that led to Nesby’s charges and upcoming hearing.
Along with the charges brought up connected to Jackson’s murder, according to court records website Judici, Nesby was also charged with two counts of home invasion which were dismissed, two counts of battery and cause of bodily harm with the charges amended or reduced, and one count of residential burglary that was also dismissed.
Nesby is currently serving 10 years in the Illinois Department of Correction on one count of aggravated discharge of a firearm and was put in custody Feb. 16, 2022.
“So September 4 will be a date that you will find out a number of other dates, and we’ll start seeing the path of the trial, or the course of the trial. Each of them is just a little bit different from the other.” Cervantez said.
When it comes to the rival groups associated with Jackson’s murder, Cervantez said they’re not your typical gangs. They are groups associated with one another with other groups that aren’t fond of one another.
“We typically will have sheets of information that have people’s names on it, and we know who’s associated with whoever people that are in those groups,” Cervantez said. “And we make sure that we do that for a reason.”
The reason is to make sure to identify these individuals to stop them from going further down a path of criminal activity not just with this incident but with all of their incidents they investigate, Cervantez said.
“I did a trial against three defendants at the same time, about two years ago, and it was for a shooting… in town square. All three were convicted,” Cervantez said. “But also, all three had many associations with certain groups, rival groups, and all three were at that party, and all three have been convicted of other gun offenses.”
Associates of Nesby were also in attendance at the party the night of Jackson’s death, Cervantez said. Some were injured in the gunfire that night with some of them also in the Illinois Department of Corrections for other unrelated gun incidents.
“I’ll say that from that party, identifying multiple individuals that attended that party, keeping track of who they were. Eventually they got, many of them got called for other gun offenses shortly after until there’s barely any of those individuals left on the street at all, and the ones that are we haven’t heard from since,” Cervantez said.
Jackson County State’s Attorney Cervantez will be presenting the evidence and do the opening and closing statement.
More information on Nesby’s charges will be given at the hearing.
The Daily Egyptian reached out to Nesby’s defense attorney Matt Foster and did not receive a response.
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Jamilah Lewis can be reached at [email protected]. To stay up to date with all your southern Illinois news, follow the Daily Egyptian on Facebook and Twitter.
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