James Michael Biela Trial?

Brianna Denison was the cold case that resulted in the arrest of James Michael Biela.
Denison was visiting friends at the University of Nevada, Reno, and had crashed on the living room couch of an off-campus apartment. While she slept, someone crept into the apartment and abducted her. She was sexually assaulted and brutally strangled, and her body found weeks later in a snow-covered field a few miles away.
The main suspect is James Michael Biela and he is waiting for trial. When is the trial going to be?

The Nevada man charged with the rape and murder of Brianna could face the death penalty if he is found guilty. Washoe County District Attorney **** Gammick of Reno plans to ask for the death penalty against 27-year-old James Michael Biela at his trial next year.

James Michael Biela is being accused of the murder of Brianna Denison and the sexual assault of two other college students in Reno, Nevada, has requested separate trials for the three cases. James Biela's attorneys said a single trial would cause unfair prejudice against him in the two rape cases.

Judge Robert Perry denied the request for three separate trials.

James Michael Biela was arrested after a lengthy investigation and search for his pickup truck. He was charged in November 2008 with Denison's murder, the rape of a university student at gunpoint in a university parking garage on Oct. 22, 2007, and with kidnapping and sexually assault of a another woman on Dec. 17, 2007.

Biela's trial is scheduled for Feb. 22, 2010.

Prosecutors argued that their was a "common scheme or plan" in the three cases. But defense attorneys disagreed.

"It seems inequitable for the defendants to enhance the probability of prejudice, then use it to his advantage to change venue in spite of its impact on cost and judicial economy," Perry said in his ruling. "The court believes that a single trial may in fact decrease the probability of publicity and prejudice."