Because coverage of her murder made finding objective jurors difficult, the trial for the final person charged with murdering Summer Cook Inman will be moved out of Hocking County.
Jury selection for William “Bill” Inman’s trial for murdering his daughter-in-law, Summer Cook Inman, 25, began Tuesday in the Hocking County Court of Common Pleas in Logan.
Judge John T. Wallace granted the motion for change of venue Wednesday.
Andrew Stevenson, one of Bill Inman’s defense attorneys, said his client’s trial might need to be moved out of Southeast Ohio to find potential jurors who have not had too much exposure to the case.
“There has been a lot of pre-trial publicity. People have read too much or talked to their coworkers about it,” Stevenson said.
It is unknown where the trial will be moved to, but Stevenson said the final decision lies with the judge.
“If we went to Athens, it is bigger, but still too close. We will have to go far away or to a big city,” he said.
Summer Cook Inman’s body was found strangled with a zip tie in a septic drain behind the Faith Tabernacle Church in Nelsonville in March 2011, a week after she went missing.
After her body was found, Bill, 48, and William “Will” Inman II, 27 — Summer’s father-in-law and husband, respectively — were each charged with two counts of aggravated murder and one count of murder, kidnapping, tampering with evidence and gross abuse of a corpse.
Bill Inman could be sentenced to the death penalty or life in prison.
Summer and Will Inman had three children together and were going through a divorce and child-custody battle when she was kidnapped.
Stevenson said about 65 potential jurors of the pool of 350 were interviewed during the two days of jury selection.
“We had only found six and we need to start with a panel of 50 to 60,” Stevenson said.
For the trial to start, 12 jurors and four alternates with “clean-slate” minds about the case must be found, he said.
Most of the jurors were not eligible because they had too much knowledge of the case, had already made up their mind regarding Inman’s guilt or had strong views about the death penalty, Stevenson said.
Hocking County Prosecutor Laina Fetherolf said there was some disagreement between the prosecution and the defense as to if jurors were able to judge Inman objectively.
“The judge granted the defenses’ motions (to deny jurors), so it was clear that we were running out of jurors rather quickly,” she said.
Fetherolf also said exposure to the case disqualified most potential jurors.
“A lot of the jurors had exposure to pre-trial publicity because Mr. Inman’s son was convicted of murder in this county and his wife pleaded guilty to murder,” Fetherolf said.
Will Inman was then convicted of all his charges June 12. The jury could have given him the death penalty, but he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Sandra K. Inman, 47, the victim’s mother-in-law, pleaded guilty to similar charges June 28 and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.
Fetherolf, who will stay with the case, said she was also unaware of where the trial will be moved to, but does not think it will affect the outcome of the trial.
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