(WILMINGTON, Del.)- There was push to transfer a stalking case from Delaware to Pennsylvania after a Delaware judge finds his name of a "hit list," according to court documents. But now, for a second time, a federal judge denies the request to transfer the trial.
U.S. District Judge Gregory M. Sleet's name was apparently found on a "hit list" discovered in the New Castle County Courthouse shooter Thomas Matusiewicz's car. Sleet, who was supposed to preside over the case, refused to do so last September.
Sleet's name was reportedly second on the "hit list," following a derogatory nickname for victim Christine Belford, according to court documents.
Police say Matusiewicz killed two people at a Delaware courthouse in 2013. That happened after a large stalking case involved three of his family members.
So, now it's up to a Delaware jury, to decide the fate of David Thomas and Lenore Matusiewicz and Amy Gonzalez in a June trial. But a Philadelphia-based judge will preside over the trial, according to a Pennsylvania judge's ruling Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Gerald Austin McHugh wrote an 8-page order Tuesday, and revealed the unusual mix of an out-state judge and an in-state jury will help preserve the "public confidence in the impartiality of the judiciary."