Web posted
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Lawyers to meet in Thurber case, preliminary hearing could be set
By RHONDA ROSS
Traveler Staff Writer
Cowley County Attorney Chris Smith said this morning a scheduling conference has been set for next Tuesday, Feb. 27, for 23-year-old Ark City resident Justin Thurber.
Thurber is being held in the Cowley County Jail on charges of capital murder, rape and aggravated kidnapping in the disappearance and murder of 19-year-old Cowley College student, Jodi Sanderholm.
Smith said he wasn't even sure if there was going to be a "hearing" or if anyone was going to show up.
"It's an "informal kind of get-together" to let the judge know what's going on and "what we can be looking at down the road," he said.
Smith said his office hasn't been told whether the meeting would be "by telephone or in person."
He said what will end up happening at the meeting is that the judge will find out where everything is, how discovery is coming, where they are in getting lab analysis back and what the defense wants to do. The judge will also learn whether the defense wants to set a preliminary hearing date or if they want to just set another scheduling conference, Smith said. A preliminary hearing will determine if there is enough evidence that a crime was committed and also if there is probable cause that the accused committed that crime.
He said the "hearing" could very possibly be delayed because the investigation is still ongoing.
"There is still information that is being gathered," he said. "We have all sorts of physical evidence to be tested; analysis is being done on that and that will take some time."
"The defense may say, 'Well, we want the results of these things before we're ready to have a preliminary hearing,'" he said. Smith said in that situation it would be up to what the state and the defense want to do.
Thurber's attorney Tim Frieden did not return a phone call by press time this morning.
Sanderholm was last seen on Friday, Jan. 5, at the Ark City Subway sandwich shop. Her body was found in southeastern Cowley County the following Tuesday. According to autopsy findings, she died of blunt force trauma and strangulation.
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