Savoie trial stays in Grant Co.

EPHRATA - Evan D. Savoie will be retried later this year in Grant County for killing a playmate, despite his attorney's request to move the trial to Clark County.

Visiting Douglas County Superior Court Judge John Hotchkiss denied the motion to change the trial's location during a hearing in Grant County Superior Court Friday.

Savoie, 22, is charged with first-degree murder in the 2003 death of Craig Sorger.

Savoie and Jake Eakin were both 12 when they allegedly beat and stabbed 13-year-old Sorger in an Ephrata park in 2003, according to a previous Columbia Basin Herald article.

Savoie reportedly dropped a rock on the victim's head and pressured Eakin to take part.

Savoie and Eakin went to Sorger's house and invited him to play on the day of the murder, according to records.

Sorger's mother became concerned when the boy didn't return home that day.

Eakin pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in April 2005, and was sentenced to 14 years in prison, according to records.

Savoie was convicted in 2006 and sentenced to 26 years in prison, however, the state Court of Appeals reversed the conviction in October 2011.

According to the decision, Grant County Superior Court violated Savoie's right as a minor to a public trial when Judge Ken Jorgensen, who is now retired, decided to close a hearing.

Grant County prosecutors re-filed the charges in December 2011.

Michael Felice, Savoie's attorney, said he wanted the trial to be moved to Clark County because the case has received a substantial amount of media attention in Grant County and most of the Inland Northwest over the last 10 years.

Internet media, newspapers and television stations have followed the case since charges were initially handed down in 2003, he said, and coverage will likely continue.

"Grant County is fully aware that Mr. Savoie has been previously convicted and that received the maximum penalty of 26 years as an adult," said Felice during the hearing. "It's going to be very, very difficult, if not impossible, for a juror to not know about this case."

Felice said moving the venue would ensure Savoie's right to a fair trial.

Chief Deputy Prosecutor Ed Owens said the motion to change the trial location was premature.

"I think it's premature to ask the court and to ask the state to agree to a change of venue when we have no idea exactly what a juror knows or has heard," he said during the hearing.

Owens said it would take more time to choose jurors who are not familiar with the case, but it could be done.

"The first trial it took us a week to interview jurors," he said. It took about a week and a half to find jurors for the David Nickels case, which was another high publicity trial, said Owens.