The jury trial date for Crystal Rogers investigation suspect Steven Lawson has been moved.
During a hearing in Nelson Circuit Court Thursday morning, Nelson Circuit Judge Charles Simms III granted a motion for a continuance filed by Lawson’s defense to delay the start of his trial on Conspiracy to Commit Murder and Tampering with Physical Evidence charges. The trial was moved from February 11 to May 27.
Lawson’s attorney Darren Wolff told Simms that he had concerns when assigned to the case on August 22 that he and co-counsel Zack Buckler would not have enough time to review the large amount of discovery to review in the case in time for a February trial. Wolff asked for the trial to be moved to late summer so that they would have enough time to look through the more than 10 terabytes of data in the case and in order to ensure Lawson received proper counsel.
Special Prosecutor Shane Young said moving the trial back would have multiple impacts including on the witnesses that have been subpoenaed in the case, the Warren County Justice Center where the trial is to take place, and Young’s cases in Hardin County that have been scheduled around the Rogers case trials. Young also said while Lawson has trial rights, so does the victim and her family, and delaying the trial impacts that.
Simms said he was also concerned that not giving the defense enough time to prepare would give potential support for an ineffective counsel claim should Lawson be successfully prosecuted, but said he would not delay the case to late summer and settled on the May 27 date. A pretrial conference for status review was scheduled for February 27.
