Pulaski County Circuit Judge Leon Johnson on Thursday delayed the first-degree murder trial of a Roland man accused of running down mother-and-daughter joggers two years ago while fleeing police in a stolen car.
But the visibly exasperated judge told the lawyers that he didn't like putting off the trial of 25-year-old Jordan Vandenberghe for a fourth time.
Johnson said he wouldn't delay the proceedings again without an exceptional reason once a new trial schedule is decided at a Sept. 28 hearing, the date that Vandenberghe had been scheduled to face a jury. Each delay seems to pose new problems that cause further setbacks, the judge said.
The date is also the deadline for the sides to complete the pre-trial exchange of evidence known as discovery.
Johnson will also have to schedule a separate hearing before the case goes to trial to decide defense motions that question whether police collected evidence legally, including interviewing Vandenberghe without informing him of his constitutional rights.
Thursday marked the second anniversary of 39-year-old Trendia Penn-Horton's death after she was hit by a careening 2004 Nissan Maxima that police say was driven by Vandenberghe.
Penn-Horton, a mother of two, and her teenage daughter, Nahtali Dashundra Horton, were jogging on the sidewalk about a half-hour before sunset as Vandenberghe was fleeing from Little Rock officer Zackary Hardman in the 1000 block of Chicot Road, according to police.
Horton, now 19, was seriously injured.
Vandenberghe lost control of the Nissan, which hit another car before running onto the sidewalk and flipping over as it struck the women before landing upside down, police said.
Vandenberghe, who was uninjured in the crash, was also charged with first-degree battery, fleeing and theft. He's been jailed since the day Penn-Horton was killed.
Vandenberghe was on probation at the time for convictions of criminal mischief, breaking or entering, theft by receiving and fraudulent use of a credit card. The charges stemmed from vandalizing the Furniture Factory Outlet with spray paint in March 2014 and breaking into the car of Emily Walker with another woman, Tiffany Michele Brinkley, in August 2014.
Vandenberghe and Brinkley used Walker's stolen credit card after the car burglary and possessed drugs and syringes when they were arrested, court records show.
Separately Thursday, Vandenberghe accepted a 10-year prison sentence for violating his probation by possessing a stolen car.
Deputy prosecutor Tonia Acker said that a month before Penn-Horton was killed Vandenberghe had been arrested by police who found him asleep at 3700 W. Fourth St. in a car that had been reported stolen from a hotel two nights before.
Metro on 09/16/2016