TROY — Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel Abelove took unusual legal steps Thursday to keep two men accused of slaying four people in a Lansingburgh apartment locked up after an anticipated grand jury indictment was hamstrung by what sources described as a potentially improper police interrogation.

Without indictments in hand, Abelove didn’t press ahead with the scheduled preliminary hearings on multiple murder counts against Justin C. Mann, 24, and James W. White, 38, both of Schenectady. Instead, White was charged with a new count of first-degree murder, while a parole violation hold was placed on Mann. After appearing before City Court Judge Christopher Maier, both were sent back to Rensselaer County Jail without bail.

“There’s nothing preventing the district attorney from going forward with the preliminary hearing. They don’t want to,” said attorney Greg Cholakis, who represents White.

State Police filed the new first-degree murder charge against White on Thursday morning. Cholakis said the last-minute maneuvers by police and prosecutor “didn’t pass the laugh test.”

Abelove has used parole holds before in homicide cases to give police up to a year to complete their investigations before going to a grand jury. He declined to speak to the media on Thursday.

Cholakis and Joseph Ahearn, who represents Mann, said they had never seen a prosecutor take such action to keep defendants in jail when he wasn’t able to proceed with a preliminary hearing.

Cholakis challenged the new murder charge as an attempt to ignore White’s rights against being held in jail without hearing the evidence. Abelove responded that the new charge was filed on a different theory of what occurred on the evening of Dec. 21 in the basement apartment at 158 Second Ave., where Brandi Mells, 22, Shanta Myers, 36, Jeremiah Myers, 11, and 5-year-old Shanise Myers were killed.

The new count accuses White of killing the 11-year-old boy while allegedly burglarizing 158 Second Ave. People familiar with the case who spoke on condition of anonymity said the boy was dropped off at the family's home while the attacks were under way, and was killed when he walked in.

The arrival of the boy at the apartment was used to set the time of the slayings, the sources said.

Cholakis said in court Thursday that legal questions have been raised about the evidence used to support the initial murder charges police filed against Mann on Saturday. This in turn impacted the charges against White.

At issue is a statement Mann made to a State Police investigator and a Troy detective during questioning, officials familiar with the interview said. The interactions between the three during the interrogation was recorded on video.

The questioning could be ruled inadmissible if it continued after Mann made a verbal refusal to respond to questions or explicitly asked for the services of an attorney.

With questions hanging over the statement, the grand jury did not take action. Court officials had expected the two preliminary hearings to be canceled Thursday as an indictment was expected to be handed up Friday. Instead, the two court appearances were pushed from Thursday morning while prosecutors and police scrambled to confront problems.

The police have video of Mann and White riding a CDTA bus, according to sources familiar with the case. CDTA officials said the video was turned over to Troy police for their investigation. Police also have acquired video from the area around 158 Second Ave.

Police from Troy and Schenectady as well as other agencies began focusing on White and Mann, in part, after reviewing footage from security cameras in Troy, sources said.

Officials familiar with the investigation said a video surveillance camera in Schenectady captured the pair returning to the city on a public bus in the hours after the slayings.

The initial charges of one count of first-degree murder and four counts of second-degree murder filed Dec. 30 against Mann and White remain in force.

Ahearn refused to waive a preliminary hearing for Mann, though the defense attorney said he couldn’t seek to have his client released due to the parole hold.

Cholakis filed a writ of habeas corpus Thursday afternoon in Rensselaer County Court seeking White's release. Judge Debra Young will hold a hearing on the motion Friday at the Rensselaer County Court House.

The new count against White is expected to give prosecutors more time to prepare for a preliminary hearing. Maier set a preliminary hearing on the new first-degree murder count for Tuesday.

“They now have another six days,” Cholakis said about the prosecution’s action to buy time to prepare.

The two women, who were a couple, and the two children were found dead on Dec. 26. The victims were bound and their throats were cut, authorities said. Police have not given a possible motive for the killings.

Mann was released from prison in June after being convicted in 2014 of committing an armed robbery in Queens. White pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2001 for his part in the stabbing death of a Bronx man, and served nearly nine years in prison before being paroled.

A memorial service is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Saturday in Troy Middle School's auditorium for Myers and her two children.

A fund has been established at McLoughlin and Mason funeral home for Myers' eldest son, Isiah Smith, who was not in the apartment at the time of the killings.

Mells' family has said they want to hold memorial services for her at various locations where she has lived, such as Syracuse and New Jersey.

The four victims were discovered in the basement apartment on Second Avenue by the apartment's property manager. He had been contacted by the mother of one of the victims, who had not heard from her daughter since before Christmas.