Byron double murder case moving along

OREGON – The case of a Byron man accused of murdering his ex-wife and 3-year-old son was continued Wednesday.

Christopher DeRango, attorney for Duane “D.C.” Meyer, 37, said he and a cellphone expert still are sifting through thousands of pages of evidence provided by the prosecution on Dec. 9.

Meyer was charged Oct. 9 in Ogle County Court with four counts of first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated arson and one count of concealment of a homicidal death. He faces up to life in prison on the murder charge.

Margaret “Maggie” Meyer, 31, was found dead on a couch on the first floor of her burning home at 2020 N. Silverthorn Drive on Oct. 19, 2016. Amos was pronounced dead a short time later at a Rockford hospital; he died of smoke inhalation.

It was Duane Meyer who reported the fire, around 6:40 a.m. that day. When firefighters arrived, smoke alarms were sounding, the house was filled with heavy smoke, and Meyer and a Byron police officer were on the lawn performing CPR on Amos, who had been in an upstairs bedroom.

Meyer told officials he was there to pick up his son. The couple had divorced about a month earlier.

DeRango’s cellphone expert contacted him late last week and said he’d conducted his primary analysis of materials related to the case, but needed raw data files that “underly the conclusions that the FBI reached,” he told Judge John B. Roe.

He got that information to his expert, but it’s a large file and he hasn’t finished going through it, said DeRango who asked that the next hearing be set at least 45 days down the road, after which, he said, all issues with discovery would be resolved.

Assistant State’s Attorney Robert Schuman did not object, and Roe set the next pretrial hearing for April 20.

“Considering the voluminous records that the defense is reviewing now and the circumstances represented here in court, I will grant that motion to continue,” Roe said.

Multiple continuances are common in murder cases.

Meyer is in Ogle County jail on $10 million bond.