Beckford seeks to suppress trial evidence

SANDPOINT — Accused killer Barry Beckford is moving for evidence against him to be suppressed, according to Washington state online court records.

A hearing on the defense motion is set for Jan. 17, 2017, in Yakima County Superior Court. The proceedings are pushing Beckford’s trial back until March of next year, online court records indicate.

Beckford is charged with murdering his 32-year-old wife, Deborah Bailey, in 1997. Authorities said Beckford was a suspect in his wife’s slaying from the outset of the investigation, but lacked sufficient evidence to sustain a murder charge. Prosecutors have not disclosed what, if anything, has emerged to bolster its case. Online court records don’t disclose which evidence the defense seeks to shield from jurors.

The case has largely flown under the radar of Yakima’s newspaper and its television stations since Beckford was arrested at his home in Vay in January 2015. Beckford’s arrest coincided with the airing of an episode of “Cold Justice,” a Turner Network Television program which probes unsolved homicides with the consent of law enforcement.

Beckford is accused of shooting his wife to death alongside a highway northeast of Naches, Wash.

Beckford denied killing his wife when he was confronted by Yakima investigators outside his Bonner County home, video footage of which presented during the episode of “Cold Justice.” Beckford pleaded not guilty to murder.

Beckford’s trial has been postponed since his arrest.

Six months following his arrest, Beckford was charged with witness tampering for telling a fellow inmate to place a threatening letter in the mailbox of a key witness and to burn down the person’s garage in Selah, Wash. The letter allegedly warned that there was $10,000 hit out on the witness and alleged drew a map of the targeted property, according to published news accounts.

It was not clear in news reports if the inmate carried out the alleged plot.

Additional witness-tampering charges were filed after Beckford allegedly tried to influence the statements of his two sons, both of whom are identified as witnesses in the murder case.