Lawyers for Alyssa Bustamante want to move to teenager from jail and have her undergo testing.
JEFFERSON CITY, MO -- A judge will not decide until next week on whether murder suspect Alyssa Bustamante can be moved from jail to undergo “testing.”
Public Defenders Donald Catlett and Charles Moreland filed a motion Monday, seeking a hearing to have Bustamante moved from the Morgan County Jail to an undisclosed location to undergo unspecified testing.
Bustamante's defense team asked the judge to keep the details of the testing from the prosecution, arguing that disclosing the information would reveal the defense's trial strategy and violate Bustamante's right to an adequate defense.
“To require Ms. Bustamante to disclose the nature of her defense, the names of persons with whom she seeks to consult, and the purposes for which (s)he seeks such assistance would compromise (her) right to present a defense and to prepare her case in confidence with counsel,” Catlett and Moreland wrote in the motion.
Cole County Presiding Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce responded that the motion will be heard in her chambers on June 20th at 1:00 p.m.
Catlett and Moreland's court motion was filed “ex parte”, meaning only the Judge and the defense will know the details. The public, prosecution and media will not be allowed to attend the hearing.
Cole County Prosecutor Mark Richardson fought against Judge Joyce's decision a year ago to allow some of the defense's motions to be filed ex parte.
Bustamante, 17, has been scheduled for trial Sept. 13, 2011 on a charge of first degree murder in the stabbing and strangulation death of her neighbor Elizabeth Olten, 9, in rural Cole County. She has pleaded not guilty.
Bustamante was 15 when she was charged as an adult with murder in the November 2009 killing. She and Elizabeth lived a few houses apart in a small town west of Jefferson City.
Also during the closed hearing on June 20 th,Judge Joyce will also hear arguments on allowing the defense more time to endorse witnesses for trial. If Judge Joyce approves the time extension, it could possibly delay the trial again.
What do you think, should the prosecution be kept from knowing about where the testing will take place and what kind of testing it is?
(The Associated Press contributed to this story)
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