Defense attorneys in double homicide trial question investigation
Defense attorney Thomas Schoenleben shows the jury a crime scene photograph of a bullet casing in Derrick James Jackson's trial in Flathead County District Court on Wednesday, April 2. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider
Flathead County Sheriff's Deputy Jamie Meyer points to a location on a crime scene sketch where the bodies of Stanley Grotberg and Tricia DeMotts were found during testimony in the Derrick James Jackson trial in Flathead County District Court on Wednesday, April 2. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider
Derrick James Jackson speaks with his defense attorney Levi Roadman during his trial in Flathead County District Court on Wednesday, April 2. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider
Defense attorneys began working in earnest on Wednesday to cast doubt on the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office’s investigation into a 2022 double homicide in Bigfork.
Prosecutors have accused Derrick James Jackson, 39, of shooting dead his 62-year-old mother Tricia DeMotts and her 65-year-old partner Stanley Grotberg in their Esteban Lane home on Oct. 28, 2022. Jackson, arrested hours before deputies discovered the bodies, has pleaded not guilty in Flathead County District Court to two counts of deliberate homicide and one count each of tampering with evidence and drug possession.
Judge Amy Eddy is presiding over the trial, which began March 31 and is scheduled through early next week.
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