9-month delay OK’d in hikers’ murder trial

HARRISONBURG, Va. – A federal judge on Wednesday postponed the capital murder trial of David Darrell Rice for nine months at the request of prosecutors who want to retest physical evidence that suggests another man was at the crime scene.

Prosecutors asked for the delay one week before the trial was to begin Nov. 3 because recent testing of crime scene evidence discovered additional hairs that they said need to be analyzed.

In court documents, prosecutors said a government expert also recently changed her opinion about the case, concluding now that DNA evidence found on material used to tie the victims did not belong to Rice, but to another man who could possibly be the perpetrator.

Rice, 36, is accused of torturing and slashing to death Julie Williams and Lollie Winans at a Shenandoah National Park campsite during Memorial Day weekend 1996.

Investigators have focused on Rice for six years, building a case that relies on circumstantial evidence and testimony from jailhouse informants.

Prosecutors asked for only a six-month delay, but U.S. District Judge Norman K. Moon decided to move the trial to Aug. 9, 2004, because defense lawyers have other commitments in six months and to suit prosecutors’ vacation schedules.

Defense lawyers opposed the delay but said they could wait until January so that the additional testing could be completed.