BOISE -- Thecouple accused of killing 8-year-old Robert Manwill last summer were back in court this afternoon.
Attorneys for the boy's mother, Melissa Jenkins, and her boyfriend, Daniel Ehrlick, want a jury from outside of southwest Idaho, but they didn't get that change of venue today.
Judge Darla Williamson says she'll hear arguments on that motion two weeks before new trial dates are set.
Last July, thousands of people spent weeks searching for Robert Manwill, whose body was found Aug. 3 in the New York canal.
Jenkins and Ehrlick made public pleas for help, but it was those two police arrested for murder.
Today, both defendants sat quietly in court, only speaking in whispers to their attorneys. Several sheriff's deputies surrounded them.
Ehrlick's attorney asked the judge for separate trials because he says Jenkins implicated Ehrlick in interviews, and it could pose a conflict for his client. The judge granted that motion.
After the hearing, Trish Burrill told us her sister, Melissa Jenkins, is distraught and confused.
It's a chess game, that's exactly the way it is. one person, one side says this the next side does this. It's just a chess game until they get it all figured out and we go to trial and hear what really happened to Robert, saidBurrill.
Next week, the two defendants will be back in court, where the judge will hear motions to push back their trials.
Right now, Ehrlick's is scheduled for April, and Jenkins is set for May.
Prosecutors asked the judge to consider holding Jenkins' trial first.
