BUFFALO, NY (WKBW) — A status conference hearing was held in federal court in Buffalo on Wednesday for the Buffalo mass shooting gunman as he edges closer toward his death penalty trial.
The defense team for Payton Gendron is asking for a delay in the start of the trial, which is tentatively set to begin January 5.
Gendron’s attorneys told the court they've had a setback with one of their attorneys diagnosed with a "very serious" medical illness and she's been unable to work on the case, and that delayed pre-trial hearings are scheduled for this month. The public defense team told Judge Lawrence Vilardo they need 30 days to report back with a replacement.
Gendron, who did not appear on Wednesday, is already serving a life sentence on state charges in the racist attack in which 10 Black people were killed at the Tops on Jefferson Avenue. He faces the death penalty in the federal case.
Garnell Whitfield, who lost his mother, Ruth Whitfield, in the attack, appeared in court Wednesday.
“How are you feeling as this death penalty trial unfolds?” I asked.
“This is just part of the process," Whitfield said. "Formalities that we have to go through. We're going to go through the process as it is, and it will reach its natural conclusion.”
“No matter what happens with this trial, my reality is such that my mother is not coming back, no matter what happens here, so this is not what drives me," Whitfield said. "It’s a process that we have to go through. I understand that, and we'll just be patient and let it unfold."
The judge plans to announce his decision on any change to a potential trial date at the next conference on June 17, saying he will be “flexible," but it doesn't mean he would put it off for a "significant period of time."
"I am trying to strike a balance,” Judge Vilardo said Wednesday in court.
