PORT ANGELES — Jurors chosen for the May murder trial of a Port Angeles man accused of killing a sheriff’s deputy will be in for a long commute.
They will be bused and ferried daily from Whidbey Island through Port Townsend to the Clallam County Courthouse for a trial that could last more than a month.
In a Thursday hearing for Thomas Martin Roberts — who is accused of killing Clallam County Sheriff’s Deputy Wally Davis in August 2000 — Superior Court Judge George L. Wood said Island County is sufficiently removed from Peninsula media coverage that might bias jurors in closer regions.
“I don’t really think they’ve been saturated with some of the coverage we’ve had here and in Jefferson County,” Wood said.
The judge last week granted Public Defender Terry Mulligan’s request for a change of venue, but ruled to use outside jurors rather than move the trial to another county.
The rest of this story appears in today’s Peninsula Daily News Clallam County edition. Click on “Subscribe” to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.