Wesley Earnest murder trial delayed again

The trial for a Bedford County man accused of staging his estranged wife’s death to appear as a suicide will not begin until Dec. 1 at the earliest, nearly two years after she was found dead in her Forest home.

Wesley Earnest, 38, is charged with first-degree murder and use of a firearm in commission of a felony in the Dec. 19, 2007, death of Jocelyn Earnest. He initially was set for trial in July 2008. This is the third time the date has been reset, according to Bedford County Circuit Court records.

Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Wes Nance said Tuesday that the delays requested by Wesley Earnest’s lawyers all have been rooted in trying to gather and review evidence. Nance said prosecutors have not objected to any of the delays.

“The ability to get those documents is a slow and time-consuming process,” Nance said. “In the next couple of months, I would think he would have all those items.”

Adding to the delay, Nance said, is the challenge in finding a time slot on the court’s schedule that is open long enough to conduct the trial.

He said it is being scheduled for a week, but is likely to take longer than that.

Earnest’s lawyer, Joseph Sanzone, said the commonwealth’s attorney’s office has been very cooperative in helping to turn over evidence in the case.

“It’s a complex case,” Sanzone said. “There is a lot of evidence.”

Wesley Earnest, a former Heritage High School assistant principal, was working as an assistant principal in the Chesapeake area when he was arrested in February 2008. He has been free on bond since June 5.

Prosecutors asked a Bedford County judge to revoke that bond last month, noting that after Wesley Earnest’s million-dollar home on Smith Mountain Lake burned down in March that he was not keeping a home where authorities expected to be able to find him. Instead, he was living at a girlfriend’s home in Campbell County, they said. The judge did not revoke Earnest’s bond, according to court records.

During his preliminary hearing more than a year ago, Nance and Commonwealth’s Attorney Randy Krantz accused Earnest of ambushing his wife as she came home from a counseling session, citing a protracted divorce as a motive.

Wesley Earnest’s fingerprints were found on what was purported to be Jocelyn Earnest’s suicide letter, according to evidence presented at that hearing. A forensic expert also testified then that it would have been difficult for the woman to hold her hand and head at the angle at which she was shot.

Earnest’s lawyers have argued that Jocelyn Earnest kept the revolver during their separation, and pointed to the drive time between Chesapeake, where he usually left work around 4 p.m. and Jocelyn Earnest’s believed time of death, around 7:30 p.m.

They also noted that Earnest was identified in the note found by his wife’s body and pointed out that a murderer would not identify himself in a fabricated suicide letter.