The jury trial for a Camdenton man charged with killing his next-door neighbors, a mother and daughter, has been set for May 9 in Laclede County.
Judge Stan Moore on Tuesday set a pre-trial conference for April 3 and jury trial for May 9, both at 9 a.m., at the Laclede County Courthouse for Steven Ray Endsley, 54.
Endsley's defense attorney requested a change of venue to Laclede County during a case review Dec. 12 at the Camden County Courthouse. Moore sustained the request and canceled the trial previously set for May 1 in Camden County.
Endsley was arrested Sept. 3, 2016, in the alleged double homicide of 27-year-old Danielle M. Smith and her mother, 61-year-old Teresa A. Jackson, following a weeklong investigation of two bodies found in the debris of a mobile home fire in Camden County.
The bodies were discovered in the remains of their burned-out trailer home south of Camdenton the morning of Aug. 29, according to information from the Camden County Sheriff's Office.
Endsley was their next-door neighbor and, according to witnesses, had been in an ongoing disagreement with Smith over her sexual orientation. The FBI assisted the Camden County Sheriff's Office in investigating the possibility of the murders being a hate crime.
Endsley is charged with two counts of class A felony first-degree murder, two counts of felony armed criminal action, one count of class B felony first-degree burglary and one count of class C felony second-degree arson.