Venue change: Murder trial moved to Fairbanks

PALMER -— Superior Court Judge Gregory Heath granted a motion to change the venue for the trial of Bradley Renfro and Austin Barrett, the last trial of those accused of the murder of Palmer teen David Grunwald in late 2016.

Heath heard testimony from District Attorney Roman Kalytiak who felt that a fair trial was indeed possible, citing the trial of Dominic Johnson that ended in December of 2018. However, jury selection for the Johnson trial was exceedingly long and arduous.

“We’ve already proven we can pick a jury in Palmer. We’ve done it twice,” Kalytiak said.

Chris Provost, representing Renfro from the Office of Public Advocacy, and Craig Howard who represents Barrett, claimed that the trial should be moved because of the difficulty of finding jurors who have not followed the high-profile trials in the media. No motion was made to sever the trial, and so the two will be tried together. Howard had to go over his schedule for the entire year including two other trials and a wedding on the east coast in trying to find an acceptable date to begin jury selection in Fairbanks.

“I am willing to push those cases to whenever you want to do the case in Fairbanks,” Howard said.

The two will appear again in Palmer superior court for a status hearing on May 17, and the date for the Fairbanks trial has tentatively been set for August 19.