BY KEN LITTLE
STAFF WRITER
Ethan A. Self's Greene County Criminal Court trial has been set for May 13.
The trial was continued for a third time in late November at the request of special prosecutor Tony Clark, First Judicial District attorney general.
Self, now 21, is charged with first-degree murder in connection with the 2010 shooting death of his police officer father. May is the next time that Criminal Court Judge John F. Dugger Jr. will hear cases in Greene County.
Lead defense lawyer John T. Milburn Rogers said Tuesday that two motion hearings will be held before the trial, on March 15 and April 5.
The March 15 hearing will be held in Morristown, in Hamblen County, where Dugger is presiding in March.
Rogers has filed more than 100 motions seeking discovery from the prosecution.
HAMBLEN COUNTY JURY
Last year, Dugger approved a motion by Rogers to pick a jury in Hamblen County because of pretrial publicity the case has received in Greene County.
The trial will be held in Greene County with jurors from Hamblen County.
The reason for the continuance request, Clark said in November, is that a vital state witness from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation would be on maternity leave on Jan. 14, when Self's trial was scheduled to begin.
She will be able to testify after March 1.
Berkeley Bell, Third Judicial District attorney general, recused himself from the case last year. Clark, who prosecutes cases in Washington County, was appointed in Bell's place.
BACKGROUND
Roger Self, 46, a Greeneville Police Department dispatch sergeant, died of a gunshot wound to the head on March 24, 2010.
Ethan Self was charged in connection with the shooting the day after his father's body was found in the bedroom of their Love Street home. He remains free on $500,000 bond.
The trial was continued twice earlier in 2012.
It was originally scheduled for May 2012, but was reset until September 2012 because of health issues Rogers had at the time.
Rogers said he has rebounded from those health problems.
The trial was reset from September to January 2012 after a joint motion by both the defense and prosecution.
Rogers said late last year that he and other defense lawyers representing Self "are ready to try the case."
"I'm in great health, and I'm ready to go," Rogers stated. "I'm completely recovered from the problems I had in the past."
