The March trial date set for convicted killer Jodi Arias has been put aside because of a conflict prosecutor Juan Martinez has with another potential death-penalty trial.
Martinez is supposed to begin trial May 12 for Bryan Hulsey, 40, who is charged with the 2007 murder of Glendale Police officer Anthony Holly. The Hulsey trial has been repeatedly postponed.
In a hearing Tuesday at Maricopa County Superior Court, Presiding Criminal Judge Joseph Welty weighed priorities in the two cases.
Arias, 33, was convicted May 8 of murdering her lover, Travis Alexander, in his Mesa home in 2008. But later in May, the jury came to an impasse on whether to sentence her to death or to life in prison for the lurid, highly publicized crime.
After months of hearings, Judge Sherry Stephens set a March 17 date to begin jury selection.
But the Hulsey case is the oldest capital murder case in the county awaiting trial.
On Feb. 19, 2007, Officer Holly, 24, was providing backup for another officer after they made a routine traffic stop of a car in which Hulsey wa a passenger. When Hulsey was ordered out of the car, he pulled a handgun from his waistband and shot Holly to death.
But defense attorney after defense attorney dropped the case, each time pushing the trial further back in time. It is now set for May 12 before Judge Joseph Kreamer.
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http://www.azcentral.com/community/mesa/articles/20140211jodi-arias-trial-date-put-aside-due-conflicting-trial.html
I understand this to mean that the Arias sentencing re-trial will not begin until after the May 12 Hulsey case is concluded.
If so, it will almost certainly not commence before June.