Once again, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the trial for Mark Redwine has been delayed, this time until the spring, which means the Vallecito man accused of killing his son could be in jail nearly four years without a trial.
Redwine, accused of killing his 13-year-old son, Dylan, in 2012, was scheduled to start a multi-week trial Jan. 25.
But at a brief court hearing Tuesday morning, the trial was reset to April 12.
District Judge Jeffery Wilson said summonses for the jury trial, which could go out to hundreds of La Plata County residents, should start to be mailed in early March.
Redwine has a pretrial conference scheduled for March 5.
Since Redwine was arrested in July 2017, there have been numerous postponements and delays.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the trial was put on hold multiple times.
In summer 2019, for instance, the trial was postponed after one of Redwine’s public defenders was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor assault and domestic violence. Those charges were ultimately dropped.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit last March, and ever since, it has been a struggle to pull off the highly publicized trial.
A trial that started this fall was off to a promising start until Redwine’s defense attorneys claimed they were showing symptoms related to the virus, forcing Wilson to declare a mistrial.
The new date was set for Jan. 25, but there was little confidence at the time it would be able to happen.
“With what’s going on nationally, statewide and locally (with the COVID-19 pandemic), I’m not sure Jan. 25 is a realistic date,” Wilson said in November. “But we can shoot for it and we’ll see what happens.”
As it stands, all jury trials in the 6th Judicial District, which includes Archuleta, La Plata and San Juan counties, are suspended indefinitely in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Jury trials will resume in the 6th Judicial District when (Judge Wilson) determines that it is safe to do so,” the order, written by Wilson, says.
jromeo@durangoherald.com