MEDFORD, OR — Two men accused in a string of drive-by shootings in Jackson County appeared in court this week as prosecutors asked a judge to merge their criminal cases. The state says the charges against Joel Caswell and Phillip Muradanes are connected and should be tried together because they stem from a common plan.
The request is scheduled to be heard on Oct. 5 at 1:30 p.m. In the meantime, the court is moving ahead with trial planning, including a tentative late-October date for Caswell if the cases are not combined. Both men remain tied to an investigation that began after a home on Carnelian Street in Medford was hit by gunfire.
Investigators linked the Carnelian Street shootings to repeated gunfire at one home
Medford police said a resident reported on Aug. 20 that a house in the 3000 block of Carnelian Street had been damaged by gunfire the previous night. Detectives confirmed a window had been struck by a bullet and then used video evidence to identify a vehicle they believed was involved.
The same home had already been targeted twice before, in drive-by shootings on July 26 and July 27, 2025. Police said the repeated incidents helped connect the cases and prompted a broader investigation into who was involved and how the shootings were carried out.
That work eventually led detectives to Caswell and Muradanes. Investigators say the shooting pattern suggested more than one incident was part of the same criminal activity rather than separate, unrelated events.
Caswell faces 10 charges across two state cases
Joel Caswell was arrested on Aug. 27, 2025, in connection with the earlier pair of drive-by shootings. He is accused of two drive-by shootings in July 2025 and of planning another drive-by shooting with another person in August.
Because the July and August allegations are being handled in separate cases, the state has asked the court to consolidate them. Prosecutors argue the incidents are part of a common scheme or plan, which would allow them to be presented together.
Caswell faces a total of 10 charges across the two cases. Court officials also said he was scheduled for trial at the end of October unless the judge orders the cases joined before then.
Muradanes was arrested at a local motel after police connected him to a vehicle
Detectives say Phillip Leo Muradanes became part of the investigation after they identified him as linked to a car matching the description of the one believed to have been used in the Aug. 20 shooting. Police said they believed Caswell and Muradanes worked together in that incident.
On Aug. 31, officers located Muradanes at a local motel and arrested him. He was booked on unlawful use of a weapon, conspiracy to commit unlawful use of a weapon, first-degree criminal mischief and a parole board warrant.
During the court appearance, Muradanes also learned that a new attorney had been assigned to represent him. Both men are now waiting for the Oct. 5 hearing on the state’s consolidation request.
Judge David Hoppe set a late-October trial window for Caswell
At the recent hearing, attorneys told the court that a decision on the consolidation motion could shape the rest of the schedule. One lawyer asked the court to keep a full week available because the length of trial would depend on how Judge David Hoppe rules on Oct. 5.
Hoppe said Caswell’s trial would be set for the last week of October. That tentative setting gives the court a path forward if the cases remain separate, but the schedule could still change if prosecutors win permission to combine the matters.
The decision is especially important because the state says the evidence in both cases overlaps. If the cases are tried together, the court could hear the allegations from the July shootings and the August shooting plan in one proceeding instead of two.
Caswell also received a federal sentence in a separate case
Caswell’s Jackson County cases are not his only legal trouble. Court records show he was sentenced last month to 42 months in federal prison in a separate case involving tax evasion and fraud.
That federal sentence does not resolve the state drive-by shooting allegations, which are still active in Jackson County. The criminal cases tied to the Medford shootings will continue in local court unless and until they are otherwise resolved.
For now, the key question is whether prosecutors can convince the judge that the allegations against Caswell should be heard together with the related charges involving Muradanes. The court is set to take up that question on Oct. 5.
