GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) — A Colorado man accused of killing Mesa County Sheriff's Deputy Derek Geer in 2016 will face two trials on multiple charges.
The Daily Sentinel reported Tuesday that 19-year-old Austin Holzer will start a three-week trial January 8 as an adult for his first-degree murder charge. He will then face a three-day trial for unrelated charges.
The second trial will be on charges of failing to register as a sex offender, one count of defacing a firearm and three counts of theft of firearms.
The trials are not joined because Holzer's public defenders contend that evidence of the requirement that Holzer should have registered as a sex offender at a joint trial would "improperly place his character at issue and would stigmatize him in the eyes of the jury."