Drug witness OK for murder trial

COEUR d’ALENE — A judge signed off Thursday on a request by prosecutors to have a state inmate shipped to Kootenai County to be a witness in this month’s murder trial.

First District Judge Lansing Haynes, who is presiding over the Jonathan Renfro murder trial, granted a motion by prosecutors to have the witness released from prison and transported to Coeur d’Alene for the Sept. 11 trial.

Renfro is accused in the 2015 killing of Coeur d’Alene Police Sgt. Greg Moore. He faces the death penalty if he’s found guilty of first-degree murder.

At Thursday’s hearing in Courtroom 12 at the Kootenai County jail, prosecutor Barry McHugh said the female witness, Jennifer Doane, 29, who was sentenced this year to a five-year prison term for drug possession, was involved in a drug transaction with Renfro prior to the early morning shooting in a northwest Coeur d’Alene neighborhood near Atlas Avenue.

Doane injected Renfro with methamphetamine and was aware that the 29-year-old had a firearm, according to prosecutors.

Because Doane is enrolled in a prison rider program — a rehabilitation program that can last up to a year and will determine if she is a good candidate for probation — Haynes was at first reluctant to have Doane as a witness because it could interrupt her rehabilitation.

“Is there another way to prove the things you’re calling (the witness) to prove?” Haynes asked.

McHugh said the convict’s testimony is necessary.

“She would be the best person to testify ... relative to the methamphetamine and displaying the handgun and talking about the bullets,” McHugh said. “(She) historically as a whole is the best person to testify.”

Haynes allowed the state to narrow down the date of a transport order so the witness would miss the least number of rehabilitation days, and attorneys said the witness would likely be housed at a jail in a neighboring county so she will not mix with inmates in the Kootenai County jail where Renfro is being housed.

Another motion hearing is set for this afternoon.

Renfro’s Sept. 11 trial is expected to last around six weeks, with two weeks set aside for jury selection. Renfro is being held in the Kootenai County jail without bond.