FBI had brief suspect other than Hall in Smith murder

 Federal agents briefly pursued an area drug dealer as a possible suspect in the abduction and death of 18-year-old Kelsey Smith last summer, according to testimony Tuesday in a hearing in the murder case against the man charged in Smith’s death.
    FBI Special Agent Michael Oyler said a tip from an employee at the Grandview police department led federal agents to Theodore Beach of Grandview, Mo. The tipster told agents Beach looked like the man in a Target store video that police had released to the media shortly after Smith disappeared June 2. Police said at the time they were seeking the man for questioning in Smith’s abduction.
    Oyler said Beach wasn’t a suspect for long.
    “For a few short hours, Mr. Beach was a suspect, then it was over,” Oyler said.
    Oyler testified Tuesday during a hearing called by Johnson County District Judge Peter Ruddick in response to defense claims that prosecutors had not shared evidence that could potentially help their client, Edwin R. Hall.
    Hall, 27, of Olathe, is charged with capital murder, rape, kidnapping and sodomy in Smith’s death. She disappeared June 2 after leaving a Target store. Her body was found four days later about 15 miles away in a Missouri park. Hall’s trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 16. He faces a possible death sentence if convicted.
    Defense lawyer Paul Cramm has questioned evidence that had been made available to his office, including FBI reports about Beach, who had been living about 4 miles from where Smith’s body was found.
    But Oyler said Beach was only a suspect until June 6, when Hall went to Cramm and told him he was the man in the video that had been broadcast nationwide. Hall has denied involvement with Smith’s disappearance or death.
    Oyler said he did not interview Beach until two months ago, but Beach had already been eliminated as a suspect.
    Johnson County Prosecutor Phill Kline said prosecutors have presented the defense with all the evidence required.
    But defense lawyer Carl Cornwell said at the end of the hearing that he was not satisfied that his office received the same materials that prosecutors and Overland Park police received from the FBI.
    “There are 7,000 date-stamped pages, and we don’t get the only documents that really arguably help the defense,” Cornwell said.
    Ruddick set another hearing on the defense claims for May 22.