COURT: TRIAL FOR TEEN-AGER SUSPECTED IN MURDER MOVED TO COLUMBIA

JACKSON, Mo. -- The trial for a 16-year-old Jackson boy accused of murdering his grandmother will be moved to Columbia, Mo., a circuit court judge decided Monday.

Judge John Grimm agreed to a change of venue to Boone County for Joshua Wolf, with the approval of Wolf's attorney, Stephen Wilson, and the Cape Girardeau County prosecutor's office.

Wilson said he is not sure how much easier the move will make jury selection.

"The nature of the details surrounding this is going to make it hard to find jurors who can say they can be fair," Wilson said.

Wolf is charged with first-degree murder, second-degree arson and armed criminal action in the shooting death of his 56-year-old grandmother, Carolyn Lindley. Lindley's body was found by firefighters who responded to smoke seen from her home on May 9 in rural Cape Girardeau County.

Wilson had sent a letter to prosecutor Morley Swingle suggesting Boone, St. Charles and Jefferson counties, among others, as possible change of venue sites.

Wilson doesn't anticipate a trial taking place sooner than April. Further mental examinations of Wolf are planned, he said, after one requested by the prosecutor's office last summer showed the teen-ager competent to stand trial.

Wolf had entered two pleas of innocence to the charges last month.

One plea is based on the facts of the case against him, while the second claims innocence by reason of insanity.