Man charged in Reno murder goes on trial today

the Associated Press

RENO -- Blue ribbons sprang up all over town as investigators searched for a missing college coed who disappeared from a friend's couch in the night near the University of Nevada, Reno campus.

The pieces of fabric fluttered from street lights and fence posts as the community waited for word on 19-year-old Brianna Denison. When the popular Reno High graduate's body was found a month later under a discarded Christmas tree in a snowy field, the ribbons remained on tree limbs and casino marquees, a symbol of her hometown's determination to find her killer.

More than two years later, the ribbons are gone.

James Biela, a 29-year-old Sparks pipe fitter, goes on trial today on charges of rape, kidnapping and murder in the Denison case. Biela also is charged with sexually assaulting two other young women. He has pleaded not guilty.

Even jury selection is expected to be contentious after sensational media coverage about the string of attacks that gripped the city for months.

District Court Judge Robert Perry said most people in the Washoe County jury pool have some awareness of the case.

"It's going to be difficult to do," Perry said of seating an unbiased panel.

He acknowledged that some evidence will be "graphic, gruesome, inflammatory." But Perry said he won't consider moving the trial without first attempting to seat a jury in Reno.

"If this case is tried just about any place on the planet, there is going to be pretrial publicity and potential jurors are going to be talking about it."

The judge has taken several steps to try to ensure the verdict won't be vulnerable to appeal, holding numerous hearings about the admissibility of evidence and ordering the names of jurors kept secret until after their work is done.

"I want to be sure we have a trial as fair as possible so we don't have reversible error, so we don't have to come back five years from now and have another multihundred-thousand dollar trial. That doesn't help anybody, the state, the taxpayers, anybody."

Perry hosted a special briefing with media representatives last month to outline how he intends to conduct the trial so it won't turn into a "circus" each day Biela is led into the courtroom in a bullet­proof vest with a half dozen police and SWAT team members. Perry is allowing cameras but with some restrictions.

He put a gag order on juror names based on concerns that if made public they might feel pressure to return a guilty verdict.

Police revealed the discovery of Denison's body during a live televised news conference and for the first time said they believed it was the work of a "serial rapist."

Three days later, detectives disclosed the killer had left two pairs of women's thong underwear with Denison's body that did not belong to her.

Within weeks, two more women came forward to say they, too, had been assaulted in the neighborhood a few blocks north of the downtown casino district.

One of the women said she was attacked in a UNR parking garage less than 50 yards from campus police head­quarters. Both said the attacker took their underwear after they were assaulted.

Biela was arrested in November 2008 after his ex-girlfriend had become suspicious when she found two pair of thong underwear in his truck.

Biela could face a death sentence if convicted of murder, but that would follow in a separate penalty phase after what is expected to be a three-week trial.