Court Preceding Limited
By: Whitney Ray
Updated: August 10, 2007
Friday morning, Benton County Circuit Judge Tom Keith decided at least one pretrial hearing will be closed to the public in a capital murder case. Serafin Sandoval Vega, Manuel Camacho, and Roxana Hernandez face charges in the shooting death of a Benton Bounty man. The three defendants were scheduled to have one trial. A motion to separate the trials was filed last month. Along with the severance motion, a motion to seal the hearing was also requested. Lawyers for two local newspapers challenged the motion to limit public and media access to the court proceedings. Keith decided to modify the order to seal. He told defense lawyers to submit pretrial information and evidence they want sealed and the court will consider them on a case to case bases. So far just one piece of information will be kept under wraps.
