Oct 21, 2007 - 04:01:19 CDT
Many factors will be the same in the second trial of Moe Maurice Gibbs for the murder of Mindy Morgenstern as in his first trial.Southeast District Judge John Paulson still will preside over the trial, slated to start Monday with jury selection at the Burleigh County Courthouse.
Fargo defense attorneys Jeff Bredahl and Dennis Fisher still will defend Gibbs.
Barnes County State's Attorney Brad Cruff, Assistant State's Attorney Lee Grossman and Assistant Attorney General Jon Byers still will prosecute the case.
Family and friends of the accused and the victim likely will fill the courtroom again, as they did in the first trial in Minot.
The difference in the second case, presumably, will be the outcome.
Gibbs, 35, a former Barnes County jailer, is accused of killing Mindy Morgenstern, a Valley City State University student from New Salem, in her off-campus Valley City apartment in September 2006. A deadlocked jury in Minot could not reach a verdict in the case at a trial that lasted from June 19 to July 12.
The twelve-person jury was split six to six when Paulson dismissed them early in the afternoon on July 12. Jurors said they deadlocked on whether DNA matching that of Gibbs found on Morgenstern's fingernails and her shirt was there from a struggle during the college student's death or from both of them touching the same objects in the apartment building where both lived.
Morton County State's Attorney Allen Koppy recently retried a Class A felony gross sexual imposition case following a hung jury in the first trial. He said attorneys in cases going to trial for the second time don't necessarily change how they did their jobs the first time. The biggest difference, sometimes, is that a different 12 people will decide the case, he said.
However, a second try can give attorneys a chance to review how they did things the first time and work on weak points, Koppy said. Attorneys can make different motions and focus on different evidence and witnesses, he said.
"If it doesn't work the first time, you might want to tinker," he said.
Koppy preferred not to discuss things he felt attorneys in the Gibbs case could do differently the second time around. Doing so would just be "playing armchair quarterback," he said.
Koppy said the atmosphere around the Gibbs case reminds him of another high-profile North Dakota murder case held in the Bismarck-Mandan area:that of Kyle Bell, a Fargo man convicted at a trial held in Mandan in 1999 for the 1993 disappearance and death of 11-year-old Jeanna North. Gibbs's trial, like that of Bell's trial before it, brings with it heightened courthouse security and interest from across the state.
Jail staff are ready
While much of the security for the trial will be handled by Barnes County, Burleigh County Sheriff Pat Heinert and his deputies and jail staff will be working harder to maintain the safety of the courthouse.
Heinert said jail personnel have spoken to officials in Cass County, where Gibbs has been housed through most of the court proceedings. He said Gibbs does not seem to have been a problem for the Cass County jail and won't be treated any differently in the Burleigh County Detention Center than any other high-security inmate.
Gibbs is slated to be brought to the Burleigh County Detention Center today. During the trial, he will enter the courthouse from the detention center on the floor that houses Courtroom 303, where the trial will be held.
Heinert said Gibbs will be come into the courtroom though the chambers of Judicial Referee John Grinsteiner, who has moved to the courthouse's visiting judge's chambers for the duration of the trial. That gives jail staff a way to get Gibbs in the courtroom through a different entrance than the general public.
"He'll be separated from the public pretty much the majority of the time," Heinert said.
The public also will have a special route to the courtroom. While visitors to the Burleigh County Courthouse typically have to go through one metal detector at the front door, people going to the trial will be funneled through a second metal detector in the hallway outside Courtroom 303.
Barnes County has contracted with Burleigh County to house Gibbs and to hire two deputies at an overtime rate to work at the trial, Heinert said. He said the only costs to Burleigh County during the trial would be "incidental costs" related to maintaining the security of the courthouse with larger-than-normal numbers of people frequenting the building.
Heinert said additional officers from the sheriff's department will flow in and out of the trial to help out with security.
Anew courtroom
Courtroom 303 is not the courtroom usually reserved for large trials held in Burleigh County. That honor typically goes to Courtroom 301, the building's largest. However, the sheriff's department decided it would be easier to get Gibbs into 303 than into 301, located down the hall and up a flight of stairs from 303. By holding the trial in 303, the sheriff's department also can set up the second metal detector and only require those going to the trial to file through it.
Burleigh County Sheriff's Lt. Nick Sevart said people going to the trial are advised to leave large bags and purses at home to speed up the process of getting into the courtroom. He said any bags or purses brought in will be subject to a search.
"It's for everybody's protection," he said about the heightened security.
Courtroom 303 contains three curved rows of seating, one small row on one side of the room, and two slightly smaller curved rows and one small row on the other side. Courtroom 301 contains two sections of three long straight rows of seating
Sevart said six seats will be reserved for media, and the remaining 40 seats will be for the general public. Because of the size, some people might not be able to get into the courtroom.
"The general public is going to be first come, first in," Heinert said.
Jury to be selected
Jury selection in the trial begins Monday and is expected to last at least a week. Barnes County Clerk of Courts Wanda Auka said 18 potential jurors could be interviewed each day from Monday until Oct. 30.
"We're not calling everyone in at once," she said.
If a jury, consisting of 12 jurors and two alternates, is seated before all of the 126 potential jurors are interviewed, the ones remaining will be notified that they no longer have to show up at the Burleigh County Courthouse.
The first time Gibbs was tried on the murder charge, much of the jury selection process was closed to the media. This time around, Paulson has decided to permit reporters to be in the courtroom while the panel is selected.
Paulson warned at a hearing Friday that opening the courtroom could cause the trial to last longer than expected.
(Reach reporter Jenny Michael at 250-8225 or jenny.michael@;bismarcktribune.com.)
concerned citizen wrote on Oct 28, 2007 10:26 AM:
Tommy wrote on Oct 21, 2007 6:16 PM:
Dexter Westbrook wrote on Oct 21, 2007 2:58 PM:
Comments are reviewed for taste, tone and language before posting.
Some comments may be used in the Tribune's print edition.
We value and respect your privacy, but The Bismarck Tribune might
disclose certain information to governmental entities if served with subpoena.