The trial for the Kalispell man accused of threatening to shoot up a school and assassinate local Jewish leaders has been delayed again.
David Joseph Lenio’s trial was pushed back a week to March 21 due to a scheduling conflict. On Feb. 4, Lenio’s defense attorney and county prosecutors met at a pre-trial conference in Flathead County District Court to discuss the case.
According to County Attorney Ed Corrigan, one of the state’s witnesses has been subpoenaed for another trial the week of March 14. Judge Heidi Ulbricht agreed to push the trial date.
This marks the third time the trial has been moved since last fall. Lenio was originally set to go to trial in November but just days before it was supposed to begin Public Defender Brent Getty filed a motion to continue. In it, Getty wrote a plea deal was in the works that it was possible a trial could be averted. That motion prompted speculation that the felony charge could be reduced to a misdemeanor or deferred prosecution. Afterwards, a small protest was held outside the Flathead County Justice Center and an online petition urged Corrigan to take the case to trial.
Lenio was arrested last winter after he allegedly sent a series of threatening messages on Twitter. On Feb. 16, he told police that he was “trying to bring attention to certain social issues,” according to court documents.
Lenio spent five months in the Flathead County Detention Center before being released into the custody of his family in Michigan.