Senior Judge Bernard J. Mulherin Sr. sent the Richmond County jury home Monday with instructions to return at 10 a.m. today.

After attorneys and the judge spoke privately at the bench Monday morning, the judge dismissed the jury. Defense attorneys leaving the court said the delay was necessary because they needed time to investigate more new evidence.

Judge Mulherin had declared a recess Friday to give defense attorneys time to investigate witness David Easterling's initial assertion that another man robbed and killed Mr. Holt.

Defense attorneys said that detail wasn't revealed by prosecutors in the case against Ronald Coleman Jr., 29, and Carlston W. Coleman, 30, as it should have been.

The defense attorneys told the court Friday the new information came to light when one of the defense attorneys in the massive RICO case reviewed documents in another case - the 1998 armed robbery and killings of Fred and Yong-Suk Walker in Columbia County.

On Monday morning, prosecutors turned over additional information about Mr. Easterling that was discovered in their files concerning the Walker slayings, said Michael Mann, an attorney for Carlston Coleman.

Mr. Easterling, Jimmy Rhodes and Dag Rhodes were indicted in the Columbia County slayings.

Defense attorneys said Friday that a note in the Walkers' case reported that Mr. Easterling told a Columbia County sheriff's officer that Jimmy Rhodes killed Mr. Holt.

Last week, Mr. Easterling's testimony put the two Colemans at the scene of the Holt crime.

Mr. Easterling, 30, has pleaded guilty to two counts of murder in the Walker case, and he pleaded guilty to kidnapping in the Holt case. He is serving two consecutive life sentences in prison.

The two Colemans, who are not related, have pleaded innocent to charges including armed robbery and kidnapping in the case of Mr. Holt, who is suspected to have been abducted from Richmond County and killed in Aiken County.

They have also pleaded innocent - as have Kendric Dudley, 30; Ronnie B. Overton Jr., 22; Charles Winters, 28; and Jarman Harold, 25 - to a charge of violating the state's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law.

Reach Sandy Hodson at (706) 823-3226 or shodson@augustachronicle.com.