LEBANON, Mo. - A murder trial that has already taken years to make it to court has been put on hold again.
Circuit Judge Ken Hayden declared a mistrial Tuesday afternoon in the case of Susan Van Note at the Laclede County Government Center. The Lee's Summit woman was on trial for the first-degree murder of her millionaire father and his girlfriend.
During a court recess in the middle of jury selection, potential jurors apparently discussed facts of the case, which qualifies as misconduct. After the recess, another jury member informed the judge.
The defense called for a mistrial, and the judge granted it. Camden County Prosecuting Attorney Michael Gilley said he and his partner, Kevin Zoellner of the Attorney General's office, had hoped to continue proceedings over the next two weeks.
"I was ready to try a case," Gilley said. "Zoellner and I were ready to try a case. We were ready to go."
Gilley also noted the prosecution attempted to offer alternatives to continue proceedings over the next two weeks with a clean jury.
"We don't really object," he said. "We offered suggestions on how it may be handled, but the court ruled a mistrial."
The defense offered no comment about the day's events on the record.
A new trial date for Van Note must be determined. After declaring the mistrial, Hayden said he had a set schedule through December 2016. He said he would attempt to alter his schedule to move the trial before then, but it could prove difficult to find a time agreed upon by all parties involved.
"With a two-week jury trial, it has to be a two-week block that can accommodate everybody," Gilley said. "We're going to do what we can."
Since the mistrial was declared before the jury was sworn in, Gilly compared it to a continuance. The charges against Van Note are still pending in Laclede County, though Gilly noted more pretrial activity and even another change of venue are possible.
Van Note is accused on two counts of first-degree murder and one count of first-degree forgery for the shooting deaths of her father, William Van Note, and his girlfriend, Sharon Dickson, in their Lake of the Ozarks home in October 2010.
Since their deaths, the case has experienced multiple delays, including a change of venue from the Camden County Courthouse to Laclede County as well as litigation over Van Note's $1 million bail bond taken out of her father's estate, which she inherited before she was charged with his murder.