WYNNE, Ark. – Lawyers for two people accused of killing an infant and abandoning the body in a camper-trailer are planning a hearing to try to remove the case from Arkansas.
Jason Hann, 27, and his wife, Krissy Lynn Werntz, 23, are due in court on Feb. 21 in Wynne. Deputy Prosecutor Michael Ladd says the hearing will determine whether the state can pursue prosecution for the couple in the asphyxiation death of their infant daughter, Montana Jean Hann.
Lawyers for the accused argue that if there was a crime, it occurred in another state. Ladd said he believes the baby died in Arkansas, and that’s where the trial should be held.
Ray Waters, lawyer for Hann, says the death likely occurred in California in January 2001.
Hann has been ordered to undergo a mental evaluation, which prosecutor Fletcher Long said cleared Hann as competent to stand trial.
Hann and Werntz were arrested in Portland, Maine, on Arkansas warrants last year. They are charged with capital murder, and prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty against the two.
The baby’s body was wrapped in plastic and hidden in a camper-trailer that later was bought at an auction in Wynne. A Benton man who bought the camper discovered the body while cleaning the camper Feb. 18.
“I feel certain this crime did not happen in Arkansas,” Waters said. “I think something bad happened in California in January 2001.”
Hann and Werntz towed the pop-up camper – with the infant’s body inside – behind a recreational vehicle purchased in Jonesboro, police said. The two paid for one month’s rent and insurance on a storage unit in Wynne, where they left the camper, according to an affidavit.
The camper was auctioned for nonpayment of rent on the storage space.
Hann also faces charges in Vermont in connection with the 1999 fatal beating of an infant son, authorities say.
Additionally, a month-old baby boy who suffered rib, skull and femur fractures and other injuries was found with the couple at the time of their arrest in Maine and is now in foster care, police said.
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