Judge finds probable cause to hold Palmetto murder suspect without bond

A judge Thursday found sufficient evidence to hold a Palmetto murder suspect without bond until his trial.

Andrew Perry, 42, is charged with second-degree murder with a firearm in the fatal shooting of Collin Mahoney, whose body was found Jan. 31 inside an abandoned home in the 500 block of 12th Street Drive West in Palmetto. Mahoney was killed the previous afternoon not far from the home, detectives believe.

Perry appeared before Manatee Circuit Judge Susan Maulucci as Assistant Public Defender Franklin Roberts asked that the defendant be released on his own recognizance.

“I’m finding probable cause in this case,” Maulucci said after nearly an hour of testimony.

Those who testified in court Thursday included Richard Talbot, crime scene unit manager for the Manatee County Sheriff's Office, latent print examiner Robert Feverston, and Chad Oyler, a homicide detective for the Palmetto Police Department.

“The only evidence in this case that’s been presented here is that there was a fingerprint discovered on a door frame of an abandoned house. They are matching that fingerprint,” Roberts said. “There were also several other fingerprints which they were not able to match and they did match one to someone who they are saying now is deceased but there were other fingerprints in an abandoned house. They are saying that my client’s denial that he’d ever been in that house is is tantamount to somehow implicating him in a murder.”

Assistant State Attorney Brian Chambers said Mahoney was shot in the torso, damaging his organs.

“Your honor, we heard testimony today that a fingerprint or a palm print, rather, was found at the scene and that it matches the defendant,” said Assistant State Attorney Brian Chambers. “The defendant claims that he was never in that house.”

The trial is set for November.

This story was originally published August 25, 2016 at 9:49 PM with the headline "Judge finds probable cause to hold Palmetto murder suspect without bond."