A judge will decide today whether to move the jury trial for Brandon Keller from Burleigh County and if a multitude of evidence should be admissible in court.

There was extensive coverage of the August shootout Keller, 19, and Michael Sherman, 27, of Fargo, had with police from a mobile home in south Bismarck, according to a motion filed by Keller's attorney, Wayne Goter. Goter said despite requests that expanded media coverage be denied, cameras were allowed in the courtroom throughout Keller's subsequent court appearances.

"Pretrial publicity has been so great that there now exists in Burleigh County so great a prejudice against him (Keller) that he cannot obtain a fair and impartial trial," Goter said in the motion for change of venue. "It is extremely unlikely that a jury of 12 fair, impartial, neutral and unbiased jurors can be impaneled from the jury pool to be used for this case."

Goter subpoenaed representatives of the Bismarck Tribune, KXMB-TV and KFYR-TV for today's motions hearing before South Central District Judge Donald Jorgensen. Jorgensen will decide whether Keller's jury trial will remain in Bismarck and also rule on five additional motions made by the defense to suppress evidence in connection with the shootout.

According to the defense, evidence seized from the south Bismarck mobile home should not appear in court because of errors police made in obtaining and executing a search warrant.

The motions say that police didn't tell the judge who issued the search warrant that their primary witness was unreliable and rather than following the provisions of the "knock and announce" warrant, SWAT team members knocked, announced and smashed in the door in "one virtually simultaneous action."

The other motions were to suppress statements made by Keller to a Bismarck Tribune reporter and a Bureau of Criminal Investigation agent and to exclude statements made by Sherman.

The motions gave the following reasons to suppress the evidence:

* Sherman was killed by a Bismarck police officer in the standoff so the defense wouldn't be able to cross examine him.

* Keller was in no condition to waive his rights in an interview with a BCI agent shortly after the standoff. He was affected by the tear gas shot into the mobile home and may have been under the influence of a controlled substance.

* Goter was denied contact with his client when he called on an attorney phone line a day after the shootout, but a Tribune reporter was able to talk to Keller. The conversation was recorded to be used as evidence.

Keller faces numerous charges in connection with the shootout and a July road rage incident in which he allegedly shot a Bismarck boy and his vehicle with a BB gun. Back-to-back trials are scheduled to begin Thursday, starting with the road rage incident.

(Reach reporter Mike Albrecht at 250-8261 or cops@ndonline.com.)