MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WPDE) - About 100 police officers, family, and community members gathered to remember a fallen police officer at a memorial created in his honor.
Ten years ago, Myrtle Beach Police Officer Joe McGarry was shot and killed in the line of duty. McGarry died December 29, 2002 when he was shot at a Myrtle Beach Dunkin Donuts.
In 2005, a jury found Luzenski Allen Cottrell guilty of murder and sentenced him to death. That conviction was overturned by the South Carolina State Supreme Court.
The retrial was set for this year, but two weeks before the scheduled date it was continued. "New defense attorneys were added so that put us back. These defense attorneys have to have time to catch up on the case," explained Solicitor Jimmy Richardson. Prosecutors now plan to try the case in September 2013.
The setbacks have not been easy on his mother Anita McGarry. "I mean waiting for this to happen again it just opens old wounds. It's very difficult, very very difficult. It's really taken a toll on me," she said. "It's like Joe's life as far as justice goes really didn't mean that much to the justice system, he's just a cop. That's the way I feel. It's very bad."
Anita said she thinks of her son everyday and while it's been ten years "there's no difference."
Former Solicitor Greg Hembree will be brought on as a special prosecutor to try the case next year.
In 2005, Cottrell was convicted of killing Jonathon Michael Love of Marion County and sentenced to life in prison for that case.
