PORT ANGELES — The man charged in the shooting death of a sheriff’s deputy will be tried in Clallam County, but jurors will be selected from elsewhere, a Superior Court judge ruled Thursday.
Judge George L. Wood granted a change of venue in the trial of Thomas Martin Roberts, 55, after Roberts’ attorney argued that “inflammatory” pretrial media coverage will make it difficult to find impartial jurors in Clallam County.
But rather than move the trial out of the county, Wood said jurors from Kitsap County or other neighboring areas will be brought to Port Angeles to hear the case.
Under state law, a change of venue can mean moving the location of a trial or selecting jurors from other areas.
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