Bunty murder trial date set

SANDPOINT - A 12-day jury trial has been set in the case of a Cocolalla businessman accused of robbing and killing two men in southern California in 1995.

The trial of Christian Leonard Bunty Sr. is slated to start April 1, according to San Bernardino Superior Court records. He is charged with two counts of murder in addition to counts of conspiracy to commit murder and second-degree murder.

Bunty, 42, is being held at the San Bernardino sheriff's detention facility in Adelanto, Calif. He is being held without bail because prosecutors have elected to seek a lifelong prison term with no chance at parole.

Bunty pleaded not guilty to the offenses last year and moved to have the charges dismissed, but the motion was declined, according to online court records.

Bunty and James Linzy Franklin are accused of luring Mark Wayne Adamson and Joseph Gerald Riley into the desert by offering to sell the alleged victims pseudoephedrine, an ingredient used to manufacture methamphetamine.

But Barstow Police contend the drug deal was a ruse used draw Riley and Adamson to a secluded location, where they were robbed and killed.

The two men were never seen again and their whereabouts remain unaccounted for. Bunty later moved to Idaho, where he started an excavation business.

Barstow Police obtained a warrant for Bunty's arrest in 2012. Franklin was already serving a life sentence for an unrelated homicide in Big Bear, Calif., when he was charged in connection the disappearance of Adamson and Riley.

A readiness hearing in the case is set for March 28.