Four murder defendants were allowed to walk free and out of prison. The group among a handful indicted in connection to last year's brutal killing of Army veteran Jason Susuico.

Authorities say the motive was a drug deal gone wrong.

As KUAM reported, co-defendants Cynthia Quinata, Jordan Babauta, Brandon Chandler and Jason Manibusan had their cases dismissed without prejudice.

Attorney General Doug Moylan responds to community concerns that these murder defendants are now out of prison.

"It’s built on circumstantial evidence," he stated. "We had our top felony murder case prosecutor on it with Sean Brown. They raised an issue of conflict. The judge did not rule on it and left it up to Sean Brown decide if he needed to withdraw. We felt it was best he step away. We did not have a second attorney to take care of that. So we dismissed without prejudice – no objections and we are going to be re-indicting it."

Moylan added, "This case, there is no smoking gun, it’s all circumstantial. We want to make sure it’s done one time and we do it right. Our new prosecutor on it has been reviewing the evidence and will ensure it’s the best shot that we can take…these are all hearsay type of cases but we believe we will get another indictment an move forward from there."

Susuico's body was found badly decomposed in a jungle area off Route 15 in Yigo in January 2023.

Defendant Gregory Reese is being tried separately.