Decision pending in shooting case
A scheduled arraignment did not occur Wednesday for a Lawrence woman accused of obstructing a murder investigation.
Attorneys on both sides said Wednesday that Douglas County District Judge Michael Malone had not made a decision whether to order Audrey Ferguson to stand trial. A preliminary hearing was Jan. 31, followed by more oral arguments in March.
Prosecutors in October charged Ferguson with felony obstruction because officers alleged she told her roommate not to speak with sheriff’s officers in the investigation into the murder of Lawrence hip-hop artist Anthony “Clacc” Vital, 28, whose bullet-ridden body was found Oct. 15 west of Lawrence.
A witness had told officers that Ferguson may have had bloody clothes at her apartment. Investigators and prosecutors allege that she hung up the phone while her roommate was on the phone with investigators and that she later told her roommate not to cooperate.
Prosecutors have said Ferguson kept officers from investigating the case, but her attorney has argued that because the search warrant of the apartment was executed, she didn’t interfere with the probe.
No one has been charged with Vital’s murder. Major “Ja Ja” Edwards, 27, is in federal custody awaiting an August trial on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Court records have connected those allegations to the Vital homicide investigation.







