Murder suspect let off without a hitch

Jun 29,2007 00:00 by UPI

SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The case against Santa Clara, Calif., murder suspect Maurice Nasmeh has been thrown out after 2 1/2 years of prosecutors delaying the trial.

Nasmeh sat in jail until Superior Court Judge Ray Cunningham ruled that the prosecutors were taking too long to bring him to trial for the disappearance and death of Jeanine Harms, The San Jose (Calif.) Mercury-News reported Thursday.

Maurice Nasmeh, 43
Nasmeh, 43, was the last person to be seen with Harms after a date in 2001 and the ruling to let him go free has the girl's parents searching for optimism.

"We look at this as kind of a stumbling block," said Jess Sanchez, Harms' father. "We are going to wait for the system to go all the way through the process. This is not the same as being found not guilty. This is just a delay."

Nasmeh will have no legal restrictions once he is out of jail, said the Mercury-News.

"Nobody won. This is a lose, lose situation," said Nasmeh's attorney, Dan Jensen. "The Harms family is not getting any closure on this," he said.

"Maurice is going to have a cloud over his head the rest of his life. It's always going to follow him. He lost his job, he lost his house and this has devastated his family," he added.