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Crime & Safety

Florissant Man Gets New Court Date in Murder Case

Zach Cook is charged in the May 5 shaking death of a 3-year-old boy.

will be back in court Sept. 26, according to court records.

Zachary Cook, 22, is scheduled to appear at a 9 a.m. hearing before Circuit Judge David Vincent III at the St. Louis County Court. He is charged with second-degree murder and is currently being held on a $100,000 bond.

Meanwhile, Cook’s attorney David Ferman filed motions questioning the method of how investigators collected evidence in the case.

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Ferman has asked Vincent to throw out any evidence “obtained pursuant to an unlawful search and seizure by the St. Louis County Police Department, the FOB or the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.”

He is also seeking to have statements Cook made to investigators thrown out because he wasn’t notified of his constitutional rights, and because Cook is a person of “limited education” who was “induced to make alleged statements by averments and promises of the arresting officers…” according to the motions.

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Prosecuting attorney John Quarenghi said he could not discuss the details of the evidence in the case or the evidence that is at the heart of Ferman’s motions.

“Defense attorneys file those motions in every case,” he said. “I’m not allowed to discuss details of the evidence.”

On May 5, police responded to a report of an injury to a child in the 2400 block of Blue Heron in Florissant. The child suffered a head injury and was taken to St. Louis Children’s Hospital, where he died from his injuries on May 8.

Cook was originally charged with felony child abuse. The police investigation revealed that the child sustained the injuries after being shaken, the said.

The 3-year-old as well as another young child was in the care of Cook at the time of the incident, according to the Florissant Police Department.

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