Judge denies Danton
change of venue request
NHL player will have murder
conspiracy trial in St. Louis area
 Bill Greenblatt / Getty Images file | Blues player Mike Danton is accused of persuading co-defendant Katie Wolfmeyer to hire a hitman to kill his agent David Frost. |
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EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. - A federal judge denied a request by Blues player Mike Danton to move his murder conspiracy trial away from the St. Louis area.
U.S. District Judge William D. Stiehl ruled Tuesday that extensive media coverage of the case hasn’t been harmful enough to merit a change of venue.
“The court cannot find that these articles and news stories are predominantly inflammatory or prejudicial,” Stiehl wrote. “Indeed, many are sympathetic to the defendant’s situation.”
But Stiehl will allow potential jurors to be questioned about how pretrial publicity has affected their views of Danton and co-defendant Katie Wolfmeyer.
Danton has been jailed since his arrest April 16 in San Jose, Calif., a day after the San Jose Sharks eliminated the Blues from the playoffs. He is accused of trying to hire a hit man to kill his agent, David Frost.
Wolfmeyer, 19, of the St. Louis suburb Florissant, is accused of trying to hire a would-be hit man, who turned out to be an informant. Frost wasn’t hurt and has maintained he wasn’t the intended target.
Danton and Wolfmeyer face the same murder-for-hire conspiracy charges.
Jury selection is expected to begin Sept. 1 for Danton, with a trial scheduled to begin Sept. 7 in East St. Louis.
The judge noted that the jurors are drawn from across 11 counties in Southern Illinois, a larger area than typical court jurisdictions from which trials have been moved out of concern for publicity.
Wolfmeyer’s attorneys haven’t objected to holding the trial in East St. Louis, and they want her to be tried alongside Danton.
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