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With one defendant from last summer's Keg Tavern shooting believed to have fled the country, a second was released Monday on his own recognizance from Kosciusko County Jail.
Adan Cervantes, Leesburg, was released Monday after nine months in jail for his involvement in the shooting of Ortie Manns, co-owner of the Keg tavern, Leesburg.
Authorities report his release was due to court rules providing a speedy trial.
Already believed to be out of the country is Marcello Brito, Warsaw, who was also charged in connection with the shooting. He failed to show up for a January court date in Kosciusko County Superior Court I.
Charges have been filed against Brito for failure to appear.
"He had been retained in jail for six straight months and there is a trial rule that if detained he must be released," said David Kolbe, Kosciusko County prosecutor.
"It's not that we agreed to let someone like that out, it's just the law," Kolbe added.
"They are entitled to be released if held for that long, and we think he is out of the country," he said.
Deputy Prosecutor Chuck Waggoner said there is a law in Indiana under the standard court rules that requires things to happen in a timely manner.
The deputy prosecutor said the delays were mostly caused by dealing with all the problems with this type of case.
"If he was born and raised in Michigan that doesn't make him any more flight risk than if he were born and raised in Mexico," Waggoner said. "If he makes bad choices he makes bad choices."
If Brito is out of the country, how will the prosecutor's office bring him back to face the charges against him?
Waggoner said it takes a governor's warrant to extradite someone from Michigan to Indiana. To extradite from Mexico it takes a governor's warrant and a warrant from the attorney general of the United States.
Cervantes was released on his own recognizance Monday after being ordered by Superior Court I Judge Duane Huffer to return for a hearing on March 21.
The gunman in the May 7 shooting at the Keg Tavern in Leesburg was sentenced to eight years in November.
Hugo Brito Delgado, 31, Warsaw, shot Manns three times - twice in the chest and once in the hip. Delgado had returned with Marcello Brito, Hugo Brito and Cervantes to the tavern after being kicked out.
Manns told the four men to leave after a fight over a game of pool, but the men came back 30 minutes later and Manns was shot at the entrance of the bar.
Cervantes was charged with aiding, inducing and causing aggravated battery and assisting a criminal. Authorities allege his gun was used in the shooting.
