FARGO (AP) - The second murder trial for the former Barnes County jailer accused of killing a Valley City State University student will be held in Grand Forks, with jury selection to begin on Oct. 22, a judge ruled.
Moe Gibbs is accused of killing Mindy Morgenstern in her off-campus apartment last September. A deadlocked jury could not reach a verdict in the case earlier this month.
Jury selection in the trial is anticipated to last six days and will take place in the Grand Forks County Courthouse, according to Southeast District Judge John Paulson's scheduling order, issued Friday.
Paulson ordered that the trial will begin Oct. 30 and will take place in the Federal District Courtroom in Grand Forks. The trial portion is expected to last through Nov. 9, plus jury deliberations, the order said.
Paulson cited extensive pretrial and trial coverage, including comments from jurors in the first case, as reasons for the case's second move out of Barnes County.
The first trial in Minot lasted nearly four weeks, including jury selection. The jury was evenly split on whether Gibbs, 34, killed Morgenstern, 22, of New Salem.
Authorities said Morgenstern was strangled with her own belt, stabbed with her kitchen knives and covered with cleaning fluid. Prosecutors said DNA evidence found under Morgenstern's fingernails and on her shirt proved that Gibbs killed her.
Gibb's attorneys argued that the DNA likely came from a doorknob in the apartment building where both Gibbs and Morgenstern lived.
Gibbs is slated to face trial Sept. 17 for six felony charges he faces amid accusations that he sexually assaulted five female inmates while working as a jailer.
He also faces a trial for the 2004 rape of a Fargo woman, for which a date has not been set. Assistant Cass County State's Attorney Gary Delorme, who will prosecute the case, said that trial was anticipated to be scheduled in either September or October.
Posted in State-and-regional on Saturday, July 28, 2007 7:00 pm Updated: 3:48 pm.
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