WESTON, W.Va. — The location of Lena Lunsford-Conaway’s trial likely won’t be decided Thursday, but how Judge Jacob Reger makes that decision could be in play at a Thursday afternoon hearing.
Judge Reger is expected to rule on whether Lunsford-Conaway’s defense team can hire a jury consultant to conduct a poll of the jury pool in Lewis and Upshur counties.
The 34-year-old former Lewis County native is facing a litany of charges in the 2011 disappearance of her then three-year-old daughter Aliayah Lunsford, who is presumed dead. Aliayah Lunsford was the subject of an extensive search for more than five years before police ultimately charged Lena Lunsford last November while she was living in Pinellas County, Florida.
Lunsford’s defense team, led by Clarksburg-based attorneys Tom and Zach Dyer, suggested in June that the court would not be able to seat an unbiased jury in Lewis County — or North Central West Virginia as a whole.
“We’ve got a very opinionated potential jury panel down there in Lewis County, and we have concerns about Ms. Lunsford’s ability to get a fair trial there,” Tom Dyer told the AJR News Network on June 23.
Dyer is ultimately seeking a change of venue, previously suggesting remote locations like Mingo County, Boone County, or the furthest counties removed from this case in the Eastern Panhandle.
Judge Jacob Reger can make three determinations Thursday, according to Dyer. He could choose to allow the Dyer’s to hire a jury consultant, which would cost taxpayers between $7,520 and $10,650 plus expenses. Dyer claims the consultant would be cheaper than reaching the October 10 jury selection date and failing to seat a jury, which would result in a mistrial.
Judge Reger could also choose to forgo the motion for a jury consultant and grant a change-of-venue. He could also deny the request entirely and continue with the trial in Lewis County Circuit Court. If Reger chooses the last option, jury selection is currently scheduled for October 10 in Lewis County Circuit Court. The trial is currently slated to begin October 12.
Dyer remained hopeful the trial would still begin in October — or at least this Fall — if a change-of-venue motion is eventually granted.
Lunsford is charged with murder of a child by parent by failure to provide necessities, death of a child by parent by child abuse, child abuse resulting in injury, and concealment of a dead body.
If convicted of murder by withholding, Lunsford faces life in prison.
The criminal complaint alleges that Lunsford-Conaway struck Aliayah Lunsford in the morning hours of September 24, 2011 with an object. Investigators believe failure to provide assistance then resulted in Aliayah’s reported death. Her remains have never been recovered.