Second Change-of-Venue Granted for Man Accused of Kedarie Johnson’s Murder

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A man accused in the murder of a 16-year-old BHS Student last year will not go to trial in Henry County as planned since May.

The trial for Jorge Louis Sanders Galvez, who prosecutors say killed Kedarie Johnson in march of last year, will now be held in South Lee County Court. That decision made by Judge Mary Ann Brown in a hearing Thursday. Brown said a decision needed to be made quickly, and that trial judges should be proactive in cases that may involve racial bias.

Curtis Dial filed the motion for a change of venue last week, saying that Henry County would not have enough diversity on their jury pools to give his minority client a fair trial. Sanders-Galvez is both Hispanic and African-American. Carie Murray, the District’s Jury Manager for Henry and Louisa County testified that of 124 potential Henry County jurors for next week’s trial, only 91 had marked their race, which is optional. Murray says that of those there was one Hispanic, and one African-American in the potential jury pool.

Prosecutors argued that the court could not compare raw census data to jury selections, as it wouldn’t take into account the number of minorities who qualify to be a juror. Assistant Iowa Attorney General Laura Roan said that Dial needed to show that the state has “systematic exclusion” of minorities on juries.

In her ruling Brown said she did not find any exclusion of minorities in Henry County, however agreed to move the trial based on the diversity of South Lee County. Curtis Dial admitted that even in South Lee County there could be no minorities on the jury, however said he would not contest the jury pool if that were the case. Brown said another factor was that South Lee County had already prepared a jury pool for another murder trial which had now been postponed, so the county would be prepared to hold the trial next week.

This is the second change of venue for the high-profile case, Dial argued in May that the amount of media coverage the crime had received in Des Moines County would make it impossible for Sanders-Galvez to receive a fair trial, it was then moved to Henry County.

Sanders-Galvez is accused of killing Kedarie Johnson and dumping his body in a 4th street alleyway with the help of another man, Jaron Narelle Purham. Purham is being held on unrelated charges in St. Louis, MO.

Jury selection is set to begin on October 25th in South Lee County District Court.