A man convicted of murder in the December 2007 death of his Bedford County wife will get a new trial, a judge ruled this morning.
Wesley Earnest was found guilty in spring of murder in the fatal shooting of Jocelyn Earnest.
However, jurors later said - first in a comment on The News & Advance's website and then in interviews - that they saw journal entries written by Jocelyn Earnest that were not allowed as evidence in the trial.
After asking the jurors in court this morning if they saw the journal entries, Bedford Circuit Judge James Updike set aside their guilty verdict.
He set a new trial date of Nov. 8 and denied Earnest bond, saying Earnest's "risk of flight is dramatically increased."
Wesley Earnest's attorney, Joseph Sanzone, had successfully argued during the trial that the entries should not be allowed as evidence because they violated Earnest’s constitutional right to cross-examine his deceased wife about them.
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