Hearing held to move trial location

John R. Myers II, the Ellettsville man indicted in the 2000 murder of 19-year-old IU student Jill Behrman, awaits a decision on whether his Sept. 18 trial will be moved out of Morgan County after requesting a change of venue Monday.\nMorgan County Superior Court Judge Christopher Burnham heard a request from defense attorney Patrick Baker of Indianapolis to move the trial from Martinsville.\nBaker cited the excess amount of media attention the case has received as detrimental to his client's right to a fair trial. Including the steady stream of media attention to the case these past six years, Fox News recently re-ran a segment about the Behrman case for its national show, "Crime Scene." \n"Due to bias and prejudice created by the extensive media coverage and publicity surrounding the alleged murder allegedly occurring on or about May 31, 2000, the defendant believes it to be impossible to receive a fair trial in Morgan County," Baker said in the petition he filed, according to an April 19 IDS article. \nBaker also requested that a sample jury be summoned in the petition. The jury would be tested by the court to gauge how much information they know about the case. Neither Behrman nor Myers are residents of Morgan County. Baker was not available for comment.\nIf convicted of Jill Behrman's death, Myers, 30, faces 40 years to life in prison without parole or the death penalty. \nThe prosecution, led by Morgan County prosecutor Stephen Sonnega, believes a change of venue would have no effect on the publicity aspect of the case.\n"I think the media is aware of this wherever you go," Eric Behrman, Jill's father, said. "They've covered it from the very beginning."\nThough Baker originally requested a venue far away from the Bloomington area in his petition, he has since asked for the location to be in Marion County.\n"It's interesting that when they say it would not be 'quite the media circus,' when you would have more media in Indianapolis. That doesn't even make sense," Eric Behrman said. Sonnega was not available for comment.\nBurnham made no immediate decision regarding the change of venue.\nJill Behrman disappeared May 31, 2000 after she went for a morning bicycle ride in the Bloomington area. Her parents, IU employees Eric and Marilyn Behrman, reported her missing that day but searchers only recovered her bike. Two years later, in 2003, hunters found Jill's skeletal remains in rural Morgan County, in a wooded area near Paragon, Ind. \nIn March 2002, police and FBI thought they had a break in the case when local resident Wendy Owings confessed that she, along with two friends, Alisha Sowders and Uriah Clouse, had accidentally hit Jill Behrman with their truck, wrapped her body in plastic and dumped her in Salt Creek, which was subsequently drained in the search for her. After the discovery of Behrman's body in Morgan County, Owings recanted her statement.\nMyers became a person of interest for the Indiana State Police in December 2004, but many of the details of the grand jury investigation, which include interviews with over 90 witnesses, remain sealed, according to an April 12 IDS article.\n"All we're trying to do is get justice for Jill," Eric Behrman said.