COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho -- A murder-for-hire trial is being delayed again and will be moved to Boise. Edgar J. Steele is charged with hiring a hit man to kill his wife and mother-in-law.
Jury selection was scheduled to begin Monday. 70 potential jurors were called ot the federal courthouse. But U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill decided to grant defense lawyers a delay so they'd have more time to prepare.
The trial will now start in April and will be moved to Boise, after Steele's attorneys complained about extensive local publicity. It is the third delay in the trial.
Steele's wife insists her husband is innocent and has been set up by the government because of his anit-Semitic, white supremacist views and for representing clients such as Aryan Nations.
Federal prosecutors say they have recordings of him talking with the hit man about killing his wife. Prosecutors say Steele was after insurance money and wanted to pursue a woman in Ukraine.
Steele is known in anti-Semitic and white supremacist circles for defending Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler in 2000. Steele lost the case, and Aryan Nations was bankrupted after being ordered to pay $6.3 million to the victims.
