SPOKANE, Wash. — A Spokane County judge pushed back the hearing for a series of motions related to the Freeman High School shooting case until Thursday. This includes a motion to move the case out of Spokane County.
Caleb Sharpe was 15 years old when police said he opened fire at Freeman High School, killing one student and injuring three others.
That was in the fall of 2017, but the case has since seen multiple delays.
The trial is set to start Jan.18. Motions were scheduled every day this week, but the judge decided to push those hearings until Thursday.
The judge will hear arguments on whether the trial should be moved to another county.
The defense also doesn't think the jury will be fair and impartial, partly because of the media coverage. That's why they want to move the trial out of Spokane County.
Court documents show the court issued a special summons for 300 jury members.
The case file also includes a proposed jury questionnaire to determine if potential jury members can be impartial.
The defense is also requesting to push the trial back because they want more time to wait for the outcome of an appeal in this case.
Another motion is seeking an exceptional concurrent sentence for the suspect if he is found guilty of the murder charges against him. Aggravated murder is a 46 year sentence. Defense attorneys are asking for an exceptional sentence of 20 years since he was a juvenile at the time of the shooting in September 2017.