Reno murder suspect seeks separate trials

RENO " Lawyers for the man accused of sexually assaulting and killing a young Reno woman and sexually assaulting two others is asking a judge for three separate trials on the charges.

Public Defender Richard Davies, in a motion filed in Washoe District Court, argues a public perception of James Biela's guilt in the Brianna Denison murder will taint jurors on the two other charges.

"The prejudicial effect of permitting a jury to decide the other allegations during the trial of the murder and sexual assault of Brianna Denison is extreme," the motion said.

"There is a distinct possibility that the jurors will convict on the other three counts out of the hostility from the Denison case."

Judge Robert Perry has scheduled an April 17 hearing to consider the motion.

Biela, 27, is charged with murder, kidnapping and three counts of sexual assault. Trial is set for Feb. 22, 2010.

He faces a possible death penalty if convicted of sexually assaulting and killing the 19-year-old Denison, who disappeared in January 2008 while sleeping on a friend's couch. Her body was found about three weeks later.

Biela also is charged with sexually assaulting a woman in a parking garage in October 2007 and kidnapping and raping another woman two months later.

Davies argues the three attacks "occurred under remarkably dissimilar circumstances."

In the first case, the woman said she was raped at gunpoint and that her attacker wore a hood over his head. Afterward, she went home and threw away her clothes. No evidence was collected and she did not report the alleged attack until Jan. 30, 2008, the motion said.

The victim in the December 2007 attack said she was grabbed from behind outside her car and then forced to the ground, the motion said. The attacker forced her into his vehicle, drove her to an unknown location, and sexually assaulted her. He returned her to her car and left.

"Each crime is a separate assault that occurred one to two months apart, under substantially different circumstances," the motion said.

Holding one trial is not appropriate, the motion said, because "there is no evidence to show that three separate events are part of a common scheme or plan."