Wood's trial date nears

As soon as COVID-19 began to spread through the United States and regulations had to be put in place, citizens immediately had to give up their freedoms to congregate, to go where they want and even to work. However, one freedom that is not being discussed is the freedom to a speedy trail.

Danielle Wood, a former Thompson Falls woman charged with deliberate homicide in the death of 51-year-old Matthew LaFriniere, has been waiting for her trial since early last year, when she made her first appearance in April 2019.

It has now been over a year and after several changes in her defense and prosecution, Judge Deborah Christopher put her foot down, last Tuesday, June 2. The judge stated in front of the court that if at all possible, Wood’s trail will occur on July 20, 2020. The Judge expressed her dissatisfaction during a status hearing for Wood. She said in court that she would be putting in a request that the current defense council “shall not be removed.” She mentioned that Wood must be quite unhappy with having to bring new a defense up to speed so often, and that, even with the coronavirus still looming, to push back the case any further would be unreasonable. Judge Christopher reminded the court of an American citizen’s right to a speedy trial.

With the trial now set there are some serious concerns and unique challenges faced by many courts during this time of pandemic that Sanders County must resolve. The court Tuesday spent more than an hour discussing ways to combat many of these for the upcoming Wood trial. One of the main hurdles would be collecting and selecting a proper jury. With limitations like social distancing in place, along with many locals’ understandable wariness to join into a small room with at least 11 other people, the court has their job cut out for them. “We are in a different place than we have ever been,” said Christopher. She went on to discuss that the trial would have to be done in person to be fair to the defendant, stating that in her experience “70% of communication is non-verbal.” She expressed the importance of in-person cross-examination and testimony.

Another issue with jury selection will be the location to do so. Ordinarily selection would be done in the courtroom. However, again with social distancing guidelines, the small space of any room within the courthouse would prove inadequate to screen over 100 possible jurors. The court is looking at possibly using one of several school gymnasiums to house the proceedings. Any place that can hold so many people within the 6-foot guidelines is being considered. After initial selection it may be possible to move back into the courtroom for final selection.

The court has also constantly had to deal with the challenges video conferencing. With so many people on a single line, as happened on Tuesday, the system can randomly pick up background noise and project it over all the speakers, creating an echo that distracts from the proceedings. Along with that, numerous other challenges have arisen from court meetings being held through video conferencing including difficulties with scheduling, communicating and simply operating at a normal capacity.

The court is also concerned with orders placed on supplies like masks and hand sanitizer, of which they will need much for both the trial and the juror selection. Orders of these supplies are sufficiently slowed down due to the great need across the country. The judge has also requested a copy of the letter to be sent out to juror candidates. She is planning on adding a sentence to the summons to speak about COVID-19 precautions and to touch on the unique circumstances faced by this trail.

Wood appeared in person in Lake County along with the judge and both the defense and prosecution. Wood’s omnibus hearing has been set for June 16. She is currently being held in Lake County Jail, pending her trial.

On Wednesday, March 20, 2018, Danielle Wood was arrested as a suspect for the deliberate homicide of her ex-boyfriend, Matthew George LaFriniere. Wood is being held on a $1 million bond. LaFriniere was found dead at his home outside Thompson Falls, shot four times in the chest, back and hand. He was found under a piece of plywood by a co-worker. LaFriniere was employed at Empire Builders Ace Hardware, and did not show up to work the morning he was found.