photo by: Mike Yoder

Rontarus Washington Jr. appears in Douglas County District Court Thursday, Sept. 3, 2015, for a preliminary hearing to determine if there's enough probable cause to bind him over on a charge of first-degree murder in connection with the slaying of Justina Altamirano Mosso.

Rontarus Washington Jr. has now been in custody of the Douglas County jail more than three years, the longest of any inmate there.

Meanwhile, the pending murder case against him continues to balloon in complexity.

Washington’s jury trial was just pushed back again and is now set to begin Sept. 24, nearly four years after the homicide at Lawrence’s Cedarwood Apartments.

Much of the delay is due to extensive motions filed by Washington’s co-defense attorneys, who remind that their client — now 21 — is a young father who faces the possibility of life in prison without the possibility of parole for 50 years.

“Rontarus Washington Jr. has steadfastly maintained his factual innocence to the charges against him. Despite several significant mental disorders he maintained this innocence through six hours of police interrogation,” attorneys Angela Keck and Adam Hall wrote in one motion, a request for additional forensic testing. “A careful, complete, and methodical analysis of the physical evidence is therefore necessary to ensure that neither Rontarus Washington Jr., nor his community is (irreparably) harmed or put at risk due to the incarceration of an innocent man instead of the guilty one.”

On Nov. 9, 2014, 19-year-old Justina Altamirano Mosso was discovered dead in a bloody bathroom of an apartment leased by her estranged husband at 1727 W. 24th St. Mosso had been bludgeoned and stabbed repeatedly in the face, head and neck. Police believe she was killed two days earlier, on Nov. 7, 2014.

Justina "Tina" Altamirano Mosso

The case against Washington, who lived down the hall from Mosso when she was killed, was opened in January 2015, after he was arrested in Mississippi, where he originally is from.

Washington was booked into the Douglas County jail on March 16, 2015. He has been in custody the longest of any current inmate, according to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.

His bond is $750,000, according to court records.

Washington is charged with one count of first-degree murder, for allegedly premeditating and intentionally killing Mosso. Alternatively, he is charged with one count of so-called “felony murder,” for allegedly killing her during the commission of an inherently dangerous felony, specifically aggravated burglary.

Washington also is charged with one count of aggravated burglary, for allegedly entering Mosso’s apartment while she was home with the intent to commit theft.

In January, the district attorney’s office filed an edited version of the charging document specifying that Washington allegedly killed Mosso sometime after 4 p.m. Nov. 7, 2014.

Additionally, the number of people listed as witnesses on the document burgeoned — from about a dozen to more than 150.

Also contributing to the case’s longevity:

• In recent months, Judge James McCabria, prosecutor C.J. Rieg and Washington’s attorneys have met for multiple hearings to argue and hear witness testimony on various motions.

Motions filed by the defense have included requests to conduct additional DNA testing on bloody scissors and a shirt found inside the bathroom with Mosso’s body; allow a representative of the defense to be present during forensic testing; suppress statements Washington made to police when questioned about the homicide; and to admit evidence of “alternative perpetrators.”

Specifically, Keck and Hall said in filings, there is evidence to suggest that Mosso’s estranged husband may have killed her in concert with one or more others. They said Felipe Cantu Ruiz allegedly had a violent relationship with the victim, among other questions about his involvement.

Ruiz, who testified at Washington’s preliminary hearing in 2015, has not been charged in connection with the crime.

• Last year, several months after court records indicated a competency exam was ordered, Washington spent several months at Larned State Hospital undergoing a competency evaluation.

Over the course of several more months upon his return, attorneys debated his competency in a series of in-depth hearings pitting an evaluation performed by the defense’s retained expert against one completed by staff at Larned. Ultimately, at the end of November, the judge ruled Washington was mentally competent to stand trial.

• Washington has had multiple attorneys in the case. Keck and Hall are the third and fourth to represent him since he was charged.

• Spanish translators have been required to interpret some interviews and proceedings, and also to translate a large number of electronic messages sent in Spanish that the defense is reviewing as part of the case, Keck said.

• On Friday, after debating motions all morning, attorneys and McCabria met again to schedule the next batch of motions hearings and a new jury trial date that would be far enough out to accommodate them.

The scheduling session, alone, took more than an hour and a half.

Additional motions hearings were scheduled throughout this spring and summer. The jury trial beginning Sept. 24 is scheduled to last two weeks.

Answering “Yes, sir,” Washington confirmed to the judge that he agreed to waive his speedy trial right to accommodate the new trial date.