Cold-case murder trial postponed
SANDPOINT — A cold-case murder trial of a former Bonner County man is being pushed back six months.
Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall and Public Defender Janet Whitney moved jointly to postpone the proceedings against Stephen Mathew Lott due to the number of law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation into Christine Lott’s killing and the duration of the investigation, which has spanned 14 years. The case was investigated by sheriff’s offices in Bonner and Kootenai counties, in addition to three agencies in Tennessee, where Stephen Lott relocated to after his wife’s disappearance.
Moreover, discovery — the pretrial exchange of evidence between the state and the defense — is ongoing.
“Discovery is not complete,” Marshall and Whitney said in the motion, which was filed in 1st District Court on Wednesday. Judge Barbara Buchanan granted the motion on Thursday and ordered the proceedings to be reset after six months, court records show.
Stephen Lott, 49, is charged with first-degree murder of his then-wife, who vanished from the Priest River area in 2004. He was long considered a suspect in her disappearance, although authorities lacked sufficient evidence to charge him.
Stephen Lott initially told investigators that his wife simply left him and their three children, although Christine Lott’s family disputed that explanation and said she would never abandon her children. However, he later told family members in a letter that Christine committed suicide, which contradicted his earlier statements to investigators.
Christine Lott’s remains were discovered in a remote and forested area east of Coeur d’Alene in 2016, although investigators did not disclose the discovery for nearly a year in order to conduct further investigation, according to court documents.
A Bonner County grand jury indicted Stephen Lott in June on charges of murder and failing to notify the coroner of a death, resulting in his arrest in Murfreesboro, Tenn. He was returned to Idaho to face the charges and is being held at the Bonner County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail.
Stephen Lott’s trial had been scheduled to get underway this month in district court.
Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.