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Defendant, attorney are no shows

Ryan Koontz chose not to show up on Monday as his jury trial on child pornography charges got under way. On the second day of that scheduled trial, neither Koontz nor his attorney showed up.
Now, a new trial will have to be scheduled for Koontz, a 36-year-old Vandalia man who was charged with 10 counts of child pornography in November 2014.
The trial for Koontz got under way, without Koontz, on Monday morning with Fayette County Resident Circuit Judge Don Sheafor meeting with Fayette County State’s Attorney Joshua Morrison and special prosecutor Shannon O’Brien of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, and Koontz’s attorney, Shin Cho of St. Louis, on pretrial matters.
The pretrial matters included motions and Sheafor making mention on the record of Koontz’s “in absentia” right not to be present for the trial.
Jury selection began Monday afternoon and was completed late in the afternoon.
The trial was to begin at 9 a.m. on Tuesday with opening statements by the prosecution and defense, but jurors waited outside the courtroom in the jury room as the judge and prosecutors waited for Cho to show up.
After waiting just under 90 minutes, with repeated attempts to contact Cho being unsuccessful, Sheafor called jurors into the courtroom to explain the circumstances.
He told jurors that, initially, the court “can and would proceed in (Koontz’s) absence.
“Now, we have a compounded problem on top of that,” Sheafor said. “We don’t know where the defendant’s attorney is.
“The bottom line is, we cannot proceed any further in this case at this time,” Sheafor said.
The judge noted that the jurors had not been sworn in yet and told them that if they had been, “That would make a huge difference in this case if we were to proceed.
“Since you’re not sworn in, you are discharged,” Sheafor said.
“We don’t know what’s going on (with Koontz or his attorney),” he said.
The decision was made to continue the case with a pretrial hearing at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, May 11, at which time a new trial date may be set. Cho was reportedly meeting with Sheafor on Wednesday morning.
Koontz was taken into custody by city, county and state law enforcement authorities after Morrison’s office filed 10 child pornography counts on Nov. 19, 2014.
Two of the charges are Class X felonies which allege that Koontz disseminated computer files of a child that he “reasonably should have known to be under the age of 13” engaged in sexual conduct.
The other eight charges are Class 2 felonies alleging possession and/or dissemination of child pornography.
The Class X offenses are each punishable by up to 30 years in prison and/or a fine of up to $100,000. The maximum penalty for each of the Class 2 felonies is seven years in prison and/or a fine of $100,000.
State law mandates that sentences in this case would be served consecutively.
 

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