PORT TOWNSEND — Legal wranglings over the extent of public funding for the defense of Robert Stoner has meant another delay in the Quilcene man’s first-degree murder trial.
Jefferson County Superior Court Judge Thomas J. Majhan postponed the trial earlier this month after Stoner’s attorney, Chuck Henry, charged the court with not providing adequate funds to conduct a thorough defense investigation.
Stoner, charged in the shooting death of Douglas McFarland, was initially set to go on trial Monday. The trial is now scheduled to start June 29.
The case, one of two homicides set to go to trial in Jefferson County Superior Court in the next several months, is stretching the resources of a county that rarely sees murder trials, let alone two at once.
In addition to the Stoner case, Robert Froehlich, 28, formerly of Quilcene, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Allison Tornensis of Quilcene in 1992. That case is expected to go on trial in the coming months.
Details appear in today’s edition of the Peninsula Daily News, on sale throughout Clallam and Jefferson counties. Or click onto “Subscribe” to order your copy via U.S. mail.
