Plea talks in murder case

SANDPOINT — Plea negotiations remain under way for two alleged accomplices in the first-degree murder of Michael Wyatt Smith.

Jennifer Thrasher and Christopher Robin Garlin are charged as accessories in the shooting death of Smith last September. They are accused of withholding knowledge of Smith’s slaying for five months.

Thrasher’s husband, Austin, is accused of shooting Smith in the head and torso with a .357 pistol in the woods near Thrasher’s Cocolalla home.

The killing went undetected until early this year, when all three suspects were apprehended in an unrelated burglary of a Ponderay pawn shop. Garlin and Jennifer Thrasher disclosed knowledge of the killing while in custody in the burglary case, according to court documents.

Smith’s remains were recovered from a makeshift grave north of Sandpoint after the disclosures.

The trio was charged in state court with grand theft and burglary for the Pawn Now break-in, but the cases were dismissed in favor of federal prosecution.

Jennifer Thrasher was to be tried this month on the accessory charge, although her defense counsel is asking for proceedings to be postponed until her federal case is resolved, state court records show.

Garlin, meanwhile, is seeking continuances in his federal case in a bid to resolve all the charges against him, federal court records indicate.

“Mr. Garlin is facing very serious state charges and the parties are working towards a global resolution in both matters,” federal public defender Amy Ruben said in a motion.

Garlin, 18, is scheduled to be tried in the accessory case in December if plea negotiations fail to bear fruit. Jennifer Thrasher, 23, is scheduled to enter a plea in the federal case on July 18, although further hearing dates in her accessory case are pending.

Austin Thrasher, also 19, is scheduled to be tried for Smith’s killing in October.

All three suspects remain jailed while the murder cases are pending.

Although all three defendants were implicated in the Pawn Now heist, only Jennifer and Thrasher are facing charges. There is no record in the federal courts database of charges against Austin Thrasher.