The trial of Nichole Erin Rice hit another bump in the road after the trial date of another murder case in North Central District Court was moved up to grant a request for a speedy trial.

Rice, charged with the 2007 murder of Anita Knutson, had been scheduled for a jury trial from July 15 through Aug. 2. While District Judge Richard Hagar considers a motion from Rice’s defense and the Ward County State’s Attorney to seek a change of venue due to publicity surrounding the case, a supplemental filing was filed by the parties following a hearing held Wednesday morning concerning the trial of Shawnee Krall.

Krall is awaiting trial on charges stemming from the 2020 murder of Alice Queirolo, 29. Krall’s trial had been scheduled for November in Morton County after a January trial date was aborted by Judge Stacey Louser out of concern that he wouldn’t be able to be tried before an impartial jury in Ward County. However, Krall filed a request for a speedy trial on May 31, and Louser granted his request at the hearing on Wednesday morning, moving to schedule Krall’s trial to begin on either July 22 or July 29.

According to court documents, the parties in the Rice case are arguing this development in the Krall trial provides additional good cause to continue her trial to a later date, as Deputy State’s Attorney Tiffany Sorgen is the lead prosecutor in both cases.

The stipulation from both parties to change the venue for Rice’s trial already carried a great deal of weight, as it was determined that a vast majority of the responses from a questionnaire by potential jurors indicated many of them were unfit due to their awareness of a nationally broadcast true crime documentary on the investigation into Knutson’s murder called “Cold Justice.”

This isn’t the first time a jury pool in a cold case murder trial may have been compromised by a “Cold Justice” broadcast. The program’s team aided DeWitt County investigators in digging into the 2001 death of Pamela Shelley in Cuero, Texas, leading to the indictment of her boyfriend, Ronnie Joe Hendrick, almost 12 years later. Former DeWitt County District Attorney Michael Sheppard gave more credit to the deputies involved in making the case prosecutable but said “Cold Justice”‘s involvement “definitely was a double-edged sword.”

“You do all this work, they do this show, and you finally have enough to indict this guy and we’re scheduled for trial. But they want to air the show a week before the trial begins. It became really obvious that everyone had seen the show and already formed an opinion,” Sheppard said.

Sheppard said, at the time, he was prepared to seek a new venue after the hubbub around the broadcast had died down, but Hendricks took a plea agreement and was sentenced to 22 years in prison.

In Ward County, the exact dates and venue for Krall’s and Rice’s trials still haven’t been settled, pending Hagar’s official ruling on the stipulation.