TEXAS
Courthouse News Service
ERIK DE LA GARZA
April 14, 2017
EDINBURG, Texas (CN) — A state judge has delayed the April trial of the former Catholic priest charged with the 1960 murder of a South Texas beauty queen, and will hear arguments next month that a “media frenzy” has poisoned the jury pool.
O. Rene Flores and Ricardo Flores, representing 84-year-old John Feit, filed a 34-page memorandum last week asking to move Feit’s case out of Hidalgo County. They argued that the “inflammatory nature of the media coverage” in the past 57 years has made it impossible for him to receive a fair trial.
On Wednesday, Hidalgo County Judge Luis Singleterry agreed that the ex-priest is entitled to a hearing and set a May 17 court date. He also scrubbed the original April 24 trial date.
“The media’s reporting of this case has created an irreversible fog of pretrial publicity,” Feit’s attorneys said in the motion to change venue. “The extent and nature of the publicity surrounding Feit’s case make it nearly impossible for Feit to receive a fair and impartial trial in the Rio Grande Valley.”
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