Judge sets trial date for Peterson child pornography case

PALMER — In a pre-trial conference in Palmer on Thursday, judge Kari Kristiansen set a trial date in the tampering case of 18-year-old Devin Peterson for Jan. 22, 2018, and set a Nov. 16 pre-trial conference and Nov. 27-30 trial date as part of the child pornography charges also filed against Peterson.

Of the five teens charged in the November killing of 16-year-old David Grunwald, Peterson is the only one not to be charged with murder.

Erik Almandinger, one of the four who is charged with murder, will be tried separately, as requested by the defendant. The prosecutor in the case asked for especially harsh sentencing for Almandinger, the first to be arrested among the five.

The trials for Almandinger and the others was originally scheduled for this fall, but in all likelihood, will not begin until well into 2018.

The child pornography charges against Peterson stem from the investigation into Grunwald’s disappearance, when police allegedly found cell phone video footage of a male having sex with a young female who appeared to be unconscious.