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Show Lafferty asks to move trial on eve of iury selection A motion to move the first degree murder trial of Ronald Watson Lafferty to another county was filed with the Utah Fourth District Court in Provo Tuesday morning. The motion, filed by court-appointed court-appointed attorney Richard B. Johnson, was accompanied by a second motion asking that Johnson be allowed to withdraw from the case so Lafferty could defend himself. Judge J. Robert Bullock is expected ex-pected to rule on both motions today at 3 p.m. in Provo - the day before jury selection is scheduled to begin in the trial. Lafferty is charged with the brutal July 24 slaying of his sister-in-law, Brenda Lafferty, and her toddler daughter. Erica, in their American Fork home. His brother, 36-year old Dan Lafferty, is presently in the Utah State Prison serving two consecutive con-secutive life terms. He was found guilty of first degree homicide in a January trial. An affidavit accompanying the motion for a change of venue claims that media coverage of that trial, and the subsequent news coverage, would make it impossible for Lafferty Laf-ferty to get a fair trial in Utah County. "No case in recent history has received as much publicity as this matter," the affidavit says. "There have been numerous accounts of jurors who sat on the Dan Lafferty case, reporting their deliberations." "It would be totally unfair to conduct the trial in this county and somehow assume that despite the deluge of information that prospective jurors have been subjected sub-jected to, they have not been tainted by the publicity," the document continues. The motion to withdraw as appointed ap-pointed counsel claims that once the court determined Lafferty was competent to proceed, it also determined the Lafferty is competent com-petent to defend himself. Utah has no specific test for competency to act as one's own attorney, the document says. In finding Lafferty could go ahead with the trial, the court, "based upon that examination, must also conclude con-clude that the defendant is free to represent himself." Both documents were filed by Johnson. Deputy Utah County Attorney Wayne Watson said the county attorney's at-torney's office is "already to go" in the case. He said he believes Ron Lafferty can get a fair trial in Utah County. If Bullock decideds to go ahead with the trial, 200 to 300 Utah County residents are expected to be called for the jury examination, with 12 jurors and two alternates chosen from them to hear the case. Jury selection is expected to last Thursday Thur-sday through Saturday. Utah County Sheriff David Bateman said security for the trial will be "even tighter" than for Dan Lafferty's trial. "We learned a few things then and these will be put into practice this time. We're even better prepared with security measures than before," he said. Bateman said his department will be acting "pursuant to a court order" or-der" in regards to security. |