Hearing is postponed in PR killings

SANDPOINT — A preliminary hearing in a Priest River double homicide is being postponed again.

The hearing to determine if Jeremy Keith Swanson should be ordered to stand trial on two counts of first-degree murder was set for Wednesday, but is being pushed back until March.

Swanson is scheduled to undergo an evaluation on Feb. 9 by Craig Beaver, a Boise doctor and diplomate in clinical neuropsychology, according to court documents. Neuropsychology is a specialty of psychology concerned with the study of the relationship between the brain and behavior.

Chief Public Defender Isabella Robertson moved for the preliminary hearing to be held after Beaver’s evaluation has been done. Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall did not object, court records indicate.

A new preliminary hearing date is pending.

Robertson does not disclose in court records what is prompting the evaluation and there are no motions on file which raise questions about Swanson’s fitness to proceed or ability to assist in his own defense.

Swanson, 27, is accused of repeatedly stabbing his wife, Jennifer, with an ice pick and a knife as she lay in bed on Dec. 18, 2012. The couple’s unborn child, estimated to be 15- to 18-weeks in utero, was also killed in the attack.

The couple’s 20-month old daughter was in the home during the attack, but was not injured.

Jennifer Marie Bosch-Swanson, also 27, suffered multiple stab wounds to her head, chest and back, according to charging documents.

Jeremy Swanson told investigators the killing was not planned, although detectives testified during a probable cause hearing that they discovered incriminating Internet search histories for advice on how to kill with an ice pick on a computer in the home.

Swanson has no prior criminal record and investigators said Swanson did not appear to be impaired by drugs or alcohol at the time of the killings.