Minnesota Teen Seeks New Location Of Murder Trial
HUMBOLDT, Iowa (AP) -- An attorney for a Minnesota teenager accused of killing two convenience store clerks in northern Iowa wants a judge to move the first of two trials because of pretrial publicity.
Seventeen-year-old Michael Swanson, of St. Louis Park, Minn., is charged as an adult with murder and robbery in Kossuth and Humboldt counties. He's accused of killing a clerk in Algona on Nov. 15, then driving to Humboldt and killing another clerk.
Swanson's first trial, on the Humboldt County case, is June 20.
The Des Moines Register says Swanson's attorney, Charles Kenville, says in court papers filed Tuesday that the trial should be moved because media coverage has "created a high degree of prejudice" against Swanson. Prosecutors agree, and urged the judge to move the trial.
A hearing is April 12.
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