Hailey Owens New Trial Setting: October of 2017
At a hearing on this case today, Judge Mountjoy wrangled with difficult scheduling issues, and was able to finally find a date that works with all the parties and the court. The prosecution was represented by Todd Myers, and Mr. Wood was represented by Patrick Berrigan and Tom Jacquinot.
The primary complication was a conflict with available court rooms in K.C. for the juror selection process combined with few mutually available dates due to the busy trial schedules of the attorneys in other cases.
The selection of jurors in K.C. will begin October 23, 2017, and then when that is complete, everyone will come here to Greene County and the trial will begin, so the actual first day of trial will not be known until after the jurors are all selected. That process could take at least several days to a week, and maybe more. The selection of the jurors is the most important part of any trial and must be done very carefully.
Judge Mountjoy has set aside October 23 through November 17, 2017 for the entire process of selecting the jurors and completing the trial.
Hailey’s family, of course, wants to have the trial as soon as possible, but they also fully understand that this is a complicated and time consuming process, and they want it all done correctly so that there will be no chances for any appeal based on any claim that Mr. Wood was not treated fairly and was not given plenty of time to prepare for trial.