The trial for a Juneau woman accused of murder is at least seven months away, attorneys said in a court hearing Friday.
Jamie Diane Moy Singh, 35, was indicted in December on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, first-degree assault and second-degree assault. The charges stem from an alleged March 6, 2018 assault in which her mother-in-law Mary Lou Singh, 59, suffered a head injury that resulted in her death 10 days later, according to news releases at the time from the Juneau Police Department.
At Friday’s hearing, Superior Court Judge Daniel Schally set a trial date of Nov. 4, but attorneys on both sides said the trial might have to be pushed back further than that.
“I think this is going to be a trial where there are a number of competing experts, for lack of a better word,” Assistant District Attorney Bailey Woolfstead said, saying both she and Assistant Public Defender Eric Hedland will likely both be calling doctors and medical personnel during the trial.
[A year after indictment, double murder trial still far off]
Mary Lou Singh was at three different medical facilities before her death, Woolfstead said, so there are many professionals who treated her and there’s a hefty amount of medical documents to gather for discovery.
Hedland, assigned to represent Singh, agreed that this fall might be a little early for a trial date. Schally said he expects the trial to take two weeks, and the attorneys concurred.
Singh made bail and is currently under supervision from the state’s Pretrial Enforcement Division, according to court records. She was present in court Friday. After Hedland and Woolfstead went back and forth about trial dates and discovery, Schally turned to Singh.
“Long story short here is that your case is complicated by its very nature,” Schally said to her.
In past court hearings, attorneys have stated that Mary Lou Singh was Singh’s mother-in-law, and that she suffered her head wound because she was pushed down the stairs in the course of the assault, according to the transcript of the hearing. Alcohol was a factor in the incident, police have said.
Singh turned herself in after the warrant for her arrest was issued, attorneys have said in previous hearings. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Sept. 16, Schally said. The pretrial hearing to prepare for the trial is scheduled for Oct. 28, but Schally and the attorneys acknowledged that there will likely be delays.
• Contact reporter Alex McCarthy at amccarthy@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @akmccarthy.
