Hundreds subpoenaed during trial preparations
With a Kansas State University English professor’s murder trial set to start in three weeks, preparations are reaching new intensity, and paperwork is piling up.
- Prosecutors sent subpoenas throughout last week ordering witnesses to be available at various times during the trial of Thomas E. Murray, which is expected to last four to six weeks. As of Friday, 273 people had been subpoenaed, an unusually large number.
The 2003 first-degree murder trial of Michael Kesselring, by contrast, involved about 40 witnesses.
It’s unlikely all the subpoenaed witnesses — a group that includes K-State students, police and family members of victim Carmin D. Ross, Murray’s ex-wife — will take the stand.
“Initially, letters and subpoenas go out to who could be any possible witness on any possible topic,” prosecutor Thomas Bath said. “Then there will be a winnowing of those persons as we work through what we decide to present.”
- People who have been called for jury duty will get a questionnaire in coming days from Douglas County District Court asking things such as how much they’ve read about the case and whether they have any family ties to law enforcement. The goal is to cut down on time needed for jury selection, which starts Feb. 14. Picking a jury could take up to two and a half days, Bath estimated.
- Defense attorneys are sifting through more than 4,000 pages of paperwork generated during the nearly yearlong investigation by the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office. Murray is charged with stabbing and beating Ross in the head and upper body in November 2003 at her home northwest of Lawrence on East 1150 Road.
Murray’s attorneys also are reviewing forensic evidence, hundreds of photographs and the roughly 700-page transcript of a preliminary hearing.
“It is an enormous responsibility, and we’re certainly very focused on it,” said Lawrence resident Robert V. Eye, who with Pedro Irigonegaray, of Topeka, is representing Murray.
- Bath, who was hired by Ross’ family as a private prosecutor, is working to prepare the case with prosecutors in Dist. Atty. Charles Branson’s office.
“We’ve literally got a chart that has every day for four weeks,” Bath said. “We’re working on who’s going on when, what they’re talking about, what documents need to come in and what exhibits need to come in.”
- A hearing on pretrial motions is scheduled for Feb. 3. Attorneys for both sides typically file motions before trial arguing whether certain pieces of evidence can be admitted.
“Those are difficult and complex questions even in a case that doesn’t have this many moving parts,” Eye said.
A weeklong preliminary hearing in December revealed that prosecutors’ case will rely largely on circumstantial evidence, such as strange and inconsistent statements Murray made to police and friends after Ross’ death. For example, Murray initially told police he’d stayed home the morning of the death but later changed his story.
A detective also testified that in the days before the killing, Murray’s computers were used to search the Internet for terms including “how to murder someone and not get caught.”
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