The Missouri Supreme Court on Wednesday assigned a new judge to preside over the motion for a new murder trial of a Lincoln County man convicted of killing his wife.
Rachel L. Bringer-Shepard, circuit judge in Marion County in the Hannibal area, was assigned to the case.
Circuit Court Judge Chris Kunza Mennemeyer had that said after reviewing Russell Faria's request for a new trial, she has "a known conflict and must recuse" and requested a transfer to another judge.
Mennemeyer has declined to comment on the nature of the conflict, which is unclear.
Last month, an appeals court ruled that . Defense lawyer Joel Schwartz filed last week.
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The Missouri Court of Appeals in 51ºÚÁÏ sent the case back to the trial judge for the hearing on the retrial motion.
Faria, 45, is serving a sentence of life without parole. He was convicted of stabbing his terminally ill wife, Betsy Faria, 55 times with a serrated knife on Dec. 27, 2011.
Questions about his conviction were the subject of .
Faria, his lawyers and his alibi witnesses have long argued that he was miles away when his wife died — and that somebody else killed her.
