Published: July 31, 2008 10:13 pm            

Arender trial delayed

August 8 hearing set for motions, new trial date

District Judge John Jackson has granted a continuance motion filed by the attorneys for Shaun Earl Arender — the man charged with the Sept. 10, 2007 rape and murder of 6-year-old Hanna Mack.

Those charges came after DNA samples from his blood matched samples found at the Mack crime scene.

The judge granted the motion on Tuesday, but no new trial date has yet been set. The trial had originally be set to begin with jury selection on Aug. 18.

There is a pre-trial hearing set for Aug. 8, in connection with the case. It is expected that defense attorneys Mark D. Griffin and Kerri Anderson Donica will ask for a specific amount of time in delaying the trial so they can prepare for a trial which some local observers are saying could last as long as four or five weeks.

Griffin is a Waxahachie attorney, while Donica practices locally.

Besides the setting of a trial date, there are other defense motions on tap for that day.

Included are motions:

• Asserting that the death penalty should be precluded in this case.

• Asking the judge to require the prosecution disclose its list of expert witnesses it plans to call at trial.

• Asking the judge to require the prosecution to provide all available written witness statements.

• Asking the judge to require the prosecution to provide complete criminal histories on all of the State’s witnesses.

Arender remains in the Navarro County jail, held in lieu of a $2.5 million bond.

On Aug. 7, a pre-trial hearing will be held in connection with the Beverly Latimer murder trial. There is an extensive list of motions in records connected with the proceedings that are kept on file in the district clerk’s office.

Latimer faces a murder charge in connection with the death of a foster child — a 16-month-old boy — in her care in September 2006. An autopsy has ruled the death as a result of blunt force trauma. She is free on $750,000 bond. Her original trial date was set for June 9.

Her trial date was moved to Sept. 8 after a motion for continuance was granted in April.

One other murder trial remains on the docket, that of Glenn Ray Boelter.

Boetler remains in the county jail charged with the Sept. 5, 2006, capital murder of Sammy Joe Hawkins. An escapee from prison in another state where he was serving time, also for murder, Boetler had an original court date set for May 12.

His case is presently set for Oct. 14.

The prosecution is not seeking the death penalty in either the Latimer or Boetler cases. There has been no word in connection with the Arender.

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Loyd Cook may be reached via e-mail at lcook@corsicanadailysun.com

        

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