Mason Sisk, the teen charged with killing five of his family members in 2019, was back in court Friday morning. Sisk’s previous trial in September was declared a mistrial by Circuit Court Judge Chadwick Wise after the phone of Mary Sisk, the slain stepmother of the accused, was unlocked by the FBI as the trial was under way.

The defense will once again argue that admissions and statements Mason Sisk made at the scene of the murders of his stepmother, Mary; father, John Sisk; and three young siblings, should be inadmissible as he had not been read his Miranda rights.

Limestone County District Attorney Brian Jones and Assistant District Attorney Bill Lisenby Jr. asked that the previous testimony given at a suppression hearing for the first trial be submitted in lieu of witnesses testifying again at the new suppression hearing set for Jan. 13, 2023.

“What we are doing is offering the transcripts from the previous motion to suppress so that we don’t have to go through the exact same thing again,” Jones said. “In their motion to suppress, they have alleged a couple of different things, so that is what we are asking the judge to do.”

Judge Wise is expected to make a decision regarding the request by the end of business day next Friday.

At Friday’s hearing, Judge Wise granted a request by the prosecution to obtain DNA samples from Mason Sisk and informed the court that the firearm used in the murders is also being tested. The gun has been sent to the Alabama Department of forensic Sciences for analysis.

“The gun that had been sent back to forensic sciences is being worked on. They are anticipating that their report will be done by the middle of the month. Once that is done, the defense’s experts will get a chance to look at the gun,” Jones said.

Mary and John Sisk’s cellphones are both in evidence at the Limestone County Sheriff’s Office since being returned by the FBI.

Jones said about John Sisk’s phone, “I don’t know what the technical term for fried is, but it’s fried.”

Judge Wise ordered that the defense now have access to the phones and to allow for their own experts to examine them.

After court adjourned, Sisk sat at the defense table as a member of the LCSO took two DNA swabs from him.

Jones had no estimate about a possible trial date for Mason Sisk.