MINOT - Jurors who are chosen to decide whether Moe Gibbs killed a Valley City State University student should be isolated during Gibbs' trial to safeguard against "meeting-hall justice," one of his lawyers says.

Dennis Fisher argued during a brief court hearing Monday that the jury in Gibbs' case should be sequestered, which means jurors would have to stay in a hotel during all or part of Gibbs' trial.

Attorneys expect to begin choosing jurors today. Court filings have speculated the trial may last a month, although both Fisher and prosecutor Brad Cruff said Monday that the job of presenting evidence could take less than two weeks.

Fisher told Southeast District Judge John T. Paulson that he did not believe jurors would be able to avoid being influenced by media reports during the trial, even if Paulson regularly cautions them to weigh only the evidence they hear in the courtroom.

Fisher referred to the presence of a television and still-camera photographer during Monday's hearing to argue that Gibbs' trial was "the kind of case that, it seems to me, where the stakes are awfully high."

"I think it's going to be really a tough road for the jurors to go in a case like this … to avoid the notion of the kind of meeting-hall justice that sometimes pops up," he said.

Paulson delayed a ruling on the issue Monday, saying it could be brought up again once Gibbs' jury is picked. If he grants the isolation request, Paulson said, jurors may be sequestered for the entire trial, or only for their deliberations after attorneys have finished presenting evidence.

"Circumstances will dictate exactly what we do," Paulson said to Fisher. "It may be that you'll be renewing your request once we get the jury panel in place."

Fisher said that if the jurors are not isolated, he may wish to question them daily during the trial about whether they had viewed media reports about it.

Cruff, who is the Barnes County state's attorney, said he did not believe it was necessary to sequester the jury. Regular instructions from Paulson for jurors to avoid press coverage should be sufficient to ensuring Gibbs receives a fair trial, Cruff said.

"I think we can have appropriate insulation to keep them protected from the information the media puts forth regarding this matter," Cruff said.

Gibbs, 34, did not speak during Monday's hearing, which lasted less than 10 minutes. He is charged with murder in the September 2006 death of Mindy Morgenstern, 22, a student at Valley City State University.

Gibbs has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bond. The murder charge he faces carries a possible sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. The trial has been moved from Valley City to Minot because of pretrial publicity.

Morgenstern was a native of New Salem, a rural Morton County community west of Mandan. She was found strangled, with a cut on her neck, in her Valley City apartment. She and Gibbs lived in the same building.

At the time of Morgenstern's death, Gibbs worked as a jailer in the Barnes County jail. The case prompted the North Dakota Legislature to extend and toughen requirements for criminal background checks for certain types of workers.

Gibbs had a criminal record under a previous name, Glen Dale Morgan Jr., including a conviction for attempted premeditated murder while Gibbs was serving in the Navy. He served more than five years in prison on the charge.

He also has pleaded not guilty to a 2004 rape in Fargo, and to charges that he sexually assaulted five female inmates while he was working at the Barnes County jail.