Salina Post

SALINA- Suspects in the May shooting death of a Salina teenager appeared in court on Thursday.

Macio Domingo Palacio, 22, Stephen Albert Gentry, Daniel Allan Sims and Jerome Dawayne Forbes, all 19, appeared before Judge Rene Young for what was supposed to have been a preliminary hearing to determine if there was enough evidence for the case to go to trial.

Saline County Attorneys Ellen Mitchell and Christina Trocheck instead asked for a continuance in the case.

The two prosecuting attorneys indicated that they had not yet received all of the evidence in the case, including an autopsy report on the victim. They also indicated that the state wanted only a preliminary hearing for all five of the suspects

The fifth suspect, Andrew Woodring, 17, is scheduled for a hearing on August 5th that will determine whether he is to be tried as an adult in the case.

The judge granted the continuance and all the attorneys involved agreed. A preliminary hearing is re-scheduled for September 10.

The suspects face charges of first degree murder, attempted first degree murder, criminal discharge of a firearm into an occupied vehicle, and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery in connection with the shooting of 17-year-old Allie Saum.

Authorities say she was shot in the head and died when one of the suspects fired at a pickup truck she was riding in with her boyfriend.

The suspects apparently mistakenly thought the boyfriend had been involved in a fistfight with them earlier that evening.

Also charged in the case is 21-year-old Azucena Garcia-Ferniza. She faces a charge of felony obstruction in the case. According to an arrest affidavit, Garcia-Ferniza was in possession of the potential murder weapn, a .45 caliber Glock 30 handgun, at the time of her arrest.