(KLZA)-- The attorney for a man charged in the 2010 disappearance of a Peru State College student is seeking to toss out a murder charge.
Monday's arraignment of 36-year-old Joshua Keadle ended with his attorney, Jeff Pickens, filing a plea in abatement.
Pickens, with the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy, argues there is not enough evidence to send the case to District Court.
Keadle is charged in connection with the December, 2010 disappearance of 19-year-old Peru State College student Tyler “Ty” Thomas.
Nemaha County, Nebraska, District Court Judge Rick Schreiner took the matter under advisement and ordered attorney's on both sides to submit written briefs before he decides if the case should move to arraignment.
Keadle's attorney argued during a March 1, preliminary hearing that without a body or cause of death there was not even circumstantial evidence to show Thomas was murdered.
Nemaha County Court Judge Curtis Maschman found that the prosecution had submitted enough evidence to move the case to District Court for arraignment.
The body of Thomas has never been found. She was declared legally dead in 2013. Keadle is believed to be the last person to see her alive. A few days after her disappearance, Keadle told law enforcement officials that he left her alive near the Peru boat dock along the Missouri River.
Monday's court proceedings were conducted at the Johnson County Courthouse in Tecumseh.
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