The defense’s motion for evidence in the capital murder trial of former Eastern student Anthony B. Mertz was granted at a pretrial hearing Wednesday.

Circuit Court Judge Dale A. Cini approved the defense’s request to receive evidence from the prosecution in the case against Anthony B. Mertz. Mertz, 26, is charged in the June 12 murder of Eastern student Shannon McNamara.

Cini set a chain of command for the evidence as requested by State’s Attorney Steve Ferguson. The evidence will go directly from the prosecution to the defense’s experts, not passing through the defense, to examine and run DNA tests on items from Mertz’s apartment, fingerprints and other physical evidence.

Previously, the defense was denied access to the evidence because there would not be enough time for it to be examined by the deadline of two days prior to the start of the trial. However, Wednesday’s request was granted since the start of the trial has been delayed to Sept. 30.

Defense attorney David Williams of Fairfield was present at the hearing for the first time since Cini’s appointment of him on April 18. Cini appointed Williams from the Illinois Capital Litigation Trial Bar, a special section of the state Supreme Court that certifies attorneys to work on death penalty cases.

Williams was hired after a request by Paula Phillips, Mertz’s lead attorney, to aid Phillips and public defender Lonnie Lutz with the workload of the case. Williams said Wednesday the defense has taken a division of labor for the workload, Phillips will work on the trial while Williams works on the mitigation.

In additon, Cini approved prosecution witnesses that were filed on April 1. Those witness are John Bradley Adams, Keri Lynn Guillory, Patricia Conrad and Curtis Huckeby.

After the hearing, Mertz and the defense met with Cini to discuss possible experts to analyze the evidence.