Following a strongly worded exchange in court this morning between opposing counsels, the murder trial of National Guard veteran Scott A. Ansman will be pushed back to around Thanksgiving time, at least two months past the prosecutor’s timetable.
The dispute between Dep. Dist. Atty. Joe Markus and public defender Nan Whitfield centers on DNA testing from the crime scene.
Sgt. Ansman, 35 years old and married with three children, is charged with brutally killing his girlfriend who was pregnant when she came to visit him at the National Guard Armory in Culver City on the afternoon of Friday, Aug. 24 last year.
Saying that the grieving mother of the victim, JoAnn Crystal Harris, 29 years old, is eager to see justice done, Mr. Markus implied that Ms. Winfield was extending the testing process beyond necessary bounds.
“The victim’s family so wants this case to go to trial, and now we are going to add another three or four weeks with still another continuance,” Mr. Markus said. “We object to any further continuances, though I understand why Ms. Whitfield has structured things the way she has.”
He said he understood that she would seek independent DNA results from evidence at the crime scene, but it should not have taken this long.
Ms. Winfield said afterward she suspected “Mr. Markus was a little taken aback that I am just not going to rely on the prosecution’s take on the evidence.”
Judge James R. Dabney ordered them back into court in a month, Wednesday, Oct. 22, at the Airport Courthouse, when the trial date is expected to be set.
Sgt. Ansman has been in jail since the day of the murder 13 months ago.
Martha Lou Harris, mother of the victim, trudged slowly and sadly into the mid-morning sunlight after the 15-minute hearing.
“Look at my eyes, how red they are,” said the 69-year-old Louisiana native. “I didn’t sleep last night. Mrs. Harris, a widow, said she usually does not sleep the night before a court hearing.
“I know it has been more than a year, but I just can’t believe I never will see my baby again,” she said.
