Booth trial date won't move

COEUR d’ALENE — A First District judge won’t move the trial date for the co-defendant in a Coeur d’Alene murder case.

After listening to an argument by the attorney for Justin Roy Booth, District Judge Scott Wayman said he had no intention of moving an April 24 jury trial to October.

Booth has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, kidnapping, robbery, arson and for being a felon in possession of a firearm. He is the second man accused of killing William Bo Kirk two years ago by shooting him in the back and dumping his body on a national forest road.

Wayman told Booth’s attorney, Jed Nixon, that despite having come on board late last fall after Booth’s previous counsel asked to withdraw from the case, Nixon should be ready for trial in two months.

His client, Wayman said, has already been in jail for almost a year waiting for his case to be heard.

“I set the case for trial because Mr. Booth has been in custody for a while,” Wayman said. “The trial date is the trial date. I’m not prepared to vacate.”

Deputy prosecutor Rebecca Perez wondered why Nixon had filed nothing in the case for five weeks, and asked the court to set a deadline for any motions that must be heard before April 24, but Wayman opted to hear motions as they arise.

“Mr. Nixon got on board late in this case, so I’m inclined to be lenient,” Wayman said.

Booth’s trial is expected to last at least two weeks. Booth, 37, was charged last April, less than two weeks after David E. Hutto was convicted and sentenced to three life sentences for his role in Kirk’s murder.

According to prosecutors, Hutto and Booth, a convicted felon on parole for robbery, burglary and theft, kidnapped Kirk from his Coeur d’Alene driveway near Ramsey Road in October 2016. The men stole Kirk’s debit card, zip-tied his hands and drove the victim into Coeur d’Alene National Forest to kill him.

Three days after he went missing, Kirk’s body was discovered along Hayden Creek Road. Booth is in the Kootenai County Jail on a $2 million bond.