Paul Kovacich, the pensioned Placer County sheriff’s sergeant accused of murdering his wife a quarter century ago, remained free on $1.5 million bail this week while preparation for his trial dragged on.
The 58-year-old former lawman is expected to seek a change of venue for
his trial, which is tentatively scheduled to start in Auburn next March.
Presiding Superior Court Judge Larry Gaddis has given Kovacich until
mid-December to actually request that the trial be held anywhere but in
Placer County and nearby counties because the publicity the case has
generated probably has prejudiced prospective local jurors.
Kovacich recently discharged his private lawyers, Tom Leupp and Clyde
Blackmon, for good reason: he’s broke and can no longer pay them. He’s
now represented by a deputy public defender.
Kovacich, a policeman in Tracy before becoming a Placer County deputy
sheriff in the early 1970s, was indicted by the Placer County Grand
Jury a year ago. He’s charged with shooting his wife Janet, then 28, in
the head in September of 1982 and dumping her body in Rollins Reservoir
northeast of Colfax.
Prosecutors claim that a piece of skull recovered from the reservoir
more in the mid-1990s, is from Mrs. Kovacich’s body. No one in
authority has offered an explanation as to why the piece of skull sat
on a shelf in the county coroner’s office for more than a decade before
surfacing as a supposed key piece of evidence in the case.
Because Janet Kovacich disappeared from her Auburn residence, the
Auburn Police Department has been in nominal charge of the
investigation.
Another “case status” session will be held in court in late October.
One of the purposes of such hearings is to determine if a defendant
wants to change his or her plea. In this case, Kovacich is sticking to
his guns and maintaining his innocence.
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