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Accused wife murderer Paul Kovacich will spend this Christmas and New Year’s with loved ones while Placer County prosecutors work to make sure he spends all of his future holiday seasons behind bars. Nothing notable occurred during a brief court session in Auburn last week, although Superior Court Judge Larry Gaddis set the retired sheriff’s sergeant’s jury trial for March 3, with another one of those “case status” hearings to be held February 29 in case Kovacich wants to change his plea.
Kovacich, 58, has pleaded innocent to killing his wife Janet in
September of 1982. He is free on $1.5 million bail, most of which is
secured by property owned by his parents, his son and a friend. He is expected to file a request for a change of trial venue, claiming
that the often-sensational publicity the case has generated over the
past quarter century will make the selection of an impartial jury in
Placer County and nearby counties impossible. Janet Kovacich was 27 when she disappeared from her Skyridge home in
Auburn. Prosecutors claim that a piece of her skull with an apparent
bullet hole in it was found in Rollins Reservoir near Colfax in 1995.
The piece of bone was not sent to the state crime lab until 2005 and
Department of Justice analysts now say it is a DNA match for Janet
Kovacich.
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