Family Caught in the Middle of Gardner Contempt Hearing Speaks Out

The imbroglio at the Circuit Attorney’s Office that led to no one showing up to prosecute a high-profile murder case has victim Brandon Scott’s family caught up in the middle. Several of them expressed frustration with city prosecutors outside the courtroom this morning after the trial of one of Scott's alleged killers was pushed back until June.

Scott, 29, was killed in September 2021 on the Arch grounds in what his family says was an act of random road rage.

The trial of one of Scott's alleged killers, 18-year-old Jonathon Jones, was supposed to start last week Monday, but no one from the Circuit Attorney's Office showed up to prosecute the case. Judge Scott Millikan demanded that a representative from the Circuit Attorney’s Office appear in court this morning and explain why Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner or someone else from the office should not be held in criminal contempt of court.
Late last week, court filings from Gardner said that the blame should fall on Assistant Circuit Attorney Alex Polta, who was assigned the Jones case. However, Polta was out of the office on leave when the trial was set to begin.

Polta appeared in court this morning along with Gardner's attorney Michael Downey, Jones and his public defender, Cecilia Appleberry. Numerous members of Scott's family were in the courtroom as well.

Polta told Judge Millikan that he took leave because he's been suffering from an upper respiratory infection from which he has not yet recovered.

"There really is no excuse for nobody showing up for trial," Polta said. He acknowledged that the case had been assigned to him, but he says he didn't recognize the defendant's name when Chief Warrant Officer Chris Hinckley texted him about it after Polta went on leave.

Polta said that he told Hinckley "It was the office's responsibility to have someone here."

Judge Millikan said that he wanted to hold the contempt hearing because, "What I'm trying to do is bring some semblance of order to this circuit."

The judge went on to tell Polta, "Between you and Mr. Hinckley, something fell through the cracks." Millikan added that "at the end of the day" Gardner bore some responsibility as well.

Judge Millikan ultimately opted to not hold anyone in contempt. He then had to rule on whether or not Jones, who has been in jail since he was 16, should be free on bond while his case continues to work its way through the courts. Judge Millikan acknowledged that it's getting more and more difficult for judges to balance the rights of defendants to speedy trials with the wishes of victims' families as well as the more general concerns of public safety. Millikan ordered Jones to remain in custody pending his trial, which is now set for June 5.

Despite the media attention the Jones case has received in the past week, as well as the broader turmoil in Gardner’s office, things were relatively placid in the courtroom this morning.
However, when Polta first entered the courtroom, Gardner’s attorney, Downey, was seated at the prosecutor’s table. Not wanting to sit at the same table as his boss’ attorney, Polta pointedly ordered Downey to “Get over there.” Downey ended up seated in the front row for the hearing.

Emotions ran a bit higher outside court when Scott’s family spoke to media.

Scott's mother, Lana Morris, said that after her experience with the two cases of the men accused of killing her son, she feels that Gardner "needs to be out of office."

When asked about last week's no-show, Terrell Herndon, Scott’s cousin, said, "That's kind of backwards to me … Why wouldn't you want to get this out of the way?"

Scott's sister April said that when her brother was killed, he had just completed a three week course to get his CDL and was supporting his fiancee who was pregnant. Scott's child will be two-years-old in July.


On the night Scott was killed, he was downtown celebrating with friends.

"On his way home, he was trying to get on the highway, and he accidentally made a wrong turn. He was just trying to come around and bust a U-turn to get on the highway," April said.

The family described Scott's killing as an act of road rage, saying he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

April stressed that her brother didn't know his alleged killers. "He's never been in the streets," she said. "He's just a family man. … Good people who do right, they don't even get justice when bad things happen to them."

"My son was a great son, and I can shout it to everybody," Morris added.

An Illinois man named Mark Perry is also facing murder charges stemming from the killing of Scott. He was allowed to await trial free on bond in December 2021. Since then he has racked up more than 20 GPS monitoring violations.

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