Murder trial hearing postponed to Wednesday

LIBERTY, Mo. -- A change of venue hearing for castrated rapist and murder suspect Wayne DuMond has been continued until Wednesday.

A hearing had been scheduled in Clay County for Thursday afternoon on DuMond's motion to move his trial from the Kansas City suburb of Liberty. DuMond has argued that he can't get a fair trial in Clay County.

DuMond is charged with killing Carol Shields on Sept. 20, 2000. Her body was found in a friend's Clay County apartment about 10 miles from DuMond's home. Police said lab tests showed tissue found under Shields' fingernails matched DuMond's DNA.

He was convicted in the 1984 rape of a Forrest City, Ark., teen-ager who is a distant cousin of Bill Clinton, then Arkansas' governor. While awaiting trial in that case, he said he was castrated by masked men who broke into his home.

After being sentenced to life plus 20 years for the rape, DuMond's sentence was commuted in 1992 to 39 years and six months, making him parole-eligible. He was released in 1999 and moved to Smithville, Mo., in August 2000; he lived there until his arrest June 22. DuMond was indicted by a Missouri grand jury July 25 and pleaded innocent the next day.