Earnest's retrial to be held in Amherst with Nelson jurors

BEDFORD — Judge James Updike told lawyers this week that he wants to keep the retrial of a former local school administrator accused of murdering his estranged wife on a tight schedule, just not one that will play out in Bedford County.

Wesley Earnest’s second trial is now set to take place in Amherst on Nov. 8 with jurors from Nelson County, the judge ruled in a hearing on Tuesday.

After nine days of testimony, he was convicted in April of the first-degree murder of Jocelyn Earnest at her Forest home in December 2007.

Updike threw out the verdict in July after 11 of the 12 jurors told the judge that during deliberations they had seen the woman’s journals, which he had excluded from evidence in a ruling before the trial started.

Wesley Earnest’s lawyer, Joseph Sanzone, filed a request Sept. 1 to move the trial because of the publicity generated by the case.

“It is impossible that a juror who had knowledge of the nature and content of the media accounts would be able to separate such knowledge from his or her own mind and give the defendant a fair and impartial trial,” Sanzone wrote in the motion.

The trial was covered by three newspapers, three local TV stations and a crew from CBS’ “48 Hours.” Aside from the quantity of publicity, Sanzone said Wednesday that some media accounts were inaccurate, while others included information about evidence jurors weren’t allowed to consider.

He said Updike told the lawyers he wanted to move the case to Nelson County because he considered it to be outside the media market that has covered the Earnest case.

Because of construction at the Lovingston courthouse, Updike decided to hold the trial in Amherst and bring jurors in from the neighboring county.

It’s not the first time jurors from Nelson County have been tapped for a high-profile Bedford County crime.

In 1990, Nelson County jurors were brought to Bedford for the trial of Jens Soering, who was convicted of murdering Derek and Nancy Haysom.

Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Wes Nance said he asked Updike to try to seat a jury in Bedford first before moving the trial. Nance said the judge likely would have run into trouble, though, which could have delayed the trial again.

“I think he wanted to avoid any delay,” he said.

The minutes of the hearing on Tuesday reflect that. Updike has said he does not plan to grant continuances, although there are likely to be other pretrial hearings regarding the admissibility of defense expert testimony, Sanzone said in the July hearing in which Updike nullified the jury verdict.

Updike also has suspended his order allowing cameras in the courtroom until it can be determined whether such coverage in the Amherst courtroom would be obtrusive.

Amherst may also bear some of the costs of the new trial, though the Office of the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court of Virginia is responsible for paying travel costs for witnesses and for the judge and clerk, should both move with the case, said Kristi Wright of the secretary’s office.

The first trial cost about $14,600. According to Bedford County’s director of fiscal management, about $11,500 was reimbursed by state funds.