'Kid Cannabis' trial scheduled for January

The trial for the man accused of killing Michael C. “Topher” Clark was moved to next year after attorneys for the defendant said they could not be ready for an earlier court date.

That means Scott White, who is being held on a $1 million bail on a charge of first-degree murder, could remain in jail until January.

Prosecutors said they could accommodate a July trial, but local attorneys Doug Phelps and John Redal, repre-senting White, said they have not reviewed all the videos and record-ings associated with the case.

“They are so voluminous,” Phelps told Coeur d’Alene Judge Cythia K.C. Meyer at a hearing in First District Court. “We have not reviewed it all.”

Phelps said he needed a special computer set aside to review the material. The defense has yet to review the grand jury transcripts.

White pleaded not guilty to the murder charge last spring, when a motion to reduce bail was denied.

White, 34, is accused of shooting Clark with several shots from a handgun Feb. 24 as Clark lay in the parking lot of the Tipsy Pine Tavern in Hayden following an after-midnight altercation. Clark was known to his friends as “Topher,” and was known for his role in a smuggling enterprise featured in the 2014 John Stockwell film “Kid Cannabis.”

Witnesses said White was intoxicated when he allegedly shot Clark, 45, at about 1:30 a.m. on a Sunday in the 8100 block of North Government Way. They said the men fought on the ground. When White stood up, he allegedly shot Clark five times with a handgun he carried in a waistband holster.

Attorneys asked for a trial date this fall but told Meyer they likely not would be ready by September. Meyer set the trial for Jan. 6 and set Dec. 19 for a pretrial conference.