What's next in Renfro murder trial

COEUR d’ALENE — After more than six days of testimony in Jonathan D. Renfro’s murder trial, the state rested its case Tuesday, setting the stage for public defenders to present evidence.

That will not happen until next week however, because expert witnesses will not be available until Oct. 10.

Renfro, 29, is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Coeur d’Alene Police Sgt. Greg Moore.

Moore was gunned down in a Coeur d’Alene neighborhood after midnight May 5, 2015, and Renfro was arrested two hours later after being found hiding under a semi-truck trailer in Post Falls near Stateline.

First District Judge Lansing Haynes asked jurors Tuesday to not speak to anyone about the case and to refrain from reading, watching or listening to media accounts of the trial.

If one of the 16 jurors inadvertently breaks with the judge’s order, he or she must immediately report it to the court, Haynes told the jurors.

The final jury panel will be comprised of 12 jurors. Four of the jurors who have sat through the proceedings since Sept. 25 serve as alternates. Who the alternates are will not be disclosed until all of the testimony has been presented.

In the meantime, Haynes and defense attorneys are lining up potential witnesses from a pool of inmates who either knew Renfro when he served time in prison beginning in 2009 on a grand theft change, or knew him on the streets and are now serving time.

Haynes called a hearing Friday at 10 a.m. in Kootenai County Courtroom 1 in Coeur d’Alene to discuss if the court should prepare transport orders with the Idaho Department of Correction for a handful of potential witnesses.

Haynes will decide which witnesses’ testimony is necessary for the defense, and important enough to have them transported to Kootenai County and housed in regional facilities.

The motion hearings include counsel for the inmates, public defenders and a representative from the Kootenai County prosecutor’s office.