The capital murder trial of Anthony B. Mertz will not move to another county, Circuit Court Judge Dale Cini ruled Tuesday, denying the defense’s request for a change of venue.

The former Eastern student accused of the June 12 murder of Shannon McNamara, a student from Rolling Meadows, will stand trial at the Coles County Courthouse in Charleston, Cini ruled.

Cindy McNamara, Shannon’s mother, returned to Charleston for the first time since her daughter’s murder, attending Tuesday’s pretrial hearing along with family members and several of her daughter’s friends.

“It’s important that it stayed here,” she said after the hearing. “It started here, so I hoped to have it ended here.”

Mertz’s defense, led by Effingham attorney Paula Phillips, had requested the trial be moved from Coles County because of the amount of local media exposure the case has received. The defense argued that the pretrial publicity included information that was “inflammatory, inaccurate and highly prejudicial.”

The venue change request was largely based on an automated telephone survey of county residents. The defense called Richard Hall to the stand Tuesday to answer questions concerning the survey. Hall, a business administration professor at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, owns Communication Express, the company which conducted the Dec. 12 survey.

The prosecution, led by State’s Attorney Steve Ferguson, contended that media coverage of the case has been overly fair and accurate and there is no presumption of prejudice in the community.

“That’s exactly what the defense is saying – prejudice should be presumed – that’s not the standard in Illinois,” he said.

Cini sided with the prosecution, ruling local coverage of the case isn’t prejudicial and would not impede the court’s ability to select an impartial jury. He said the venue change motion filed by the defense last month did not establish that the community from which the jury would be drawn is “permeated with hostility toward the defendant” because of pretrial publicity and therefore did not meet criteria outlined in the U.S. Supreme Court decision Groppi v. Wisconsin.

The defense survey reached 5,243 people in Coles County, 42 percent of which chose to participate by answering the first of four questions. Hall testified the percentage of those who chose to participate was “unusually high,” compared to responses of 20 to 25 percent from political polls his company performs. However, when questioned by Cini, Hall said 42 percent was considered average in surveys concerned with judicial matters.

The 2,199 people who participated in the survey were first asked if they recalled any details of McNamara’s murder. If they answered no, the survey ended. The 63 percent who answered yes were then asked whether they were very familiar with case, knew some details or had little knowledge of the case. Respondents were then asked if their knowledge of the case came from the news, conversations or both.

The survey’s final question asked respondents if, based on what they recalled, they believed Mertz was probably guilty, probably innocent or if they had no opinion. The final question was answered by 1,273 survey respondents, 70 percent of which said Mertz was probably guilty. Only 1 percent said he was probably innocent and the remaining 29 percent registered no opinion.

The survey also allowed respondents to record a message. Cini took a one hour recess Tuesday to listen to the tape of voice messages left and to read newspapers articles which the defense had presented as evidence.

“Judge, this a capital murder case. You listened to some of the messages, read the articles, there is no way Anthony Mertz get a fair trial here,” Phillips said.

“A man’s life is at stake your honor. The only way to ensure that Anthony Mertz can receive a fair trial is to move it out of this county.”

Cini maintained that is not the case. He ruled the trial will remain in Coles County and jury selection will begin as scheduled on April 15. Cini also set a final pretrial hearing for April 2.

Cindy McNamara said it was difficult to return to Charleston and sit in the same the courtroom with the man accused of sexually assaulting, strangling and mutilating her daughter.

“Today was hard. It was the first time back since last time when we were called down here. But I do feel optimistic,” she said. “Everything is going on track and I hope both sides do their job so nothing will be left behind. “

While it now appears certain Mertz’s trial will remain in Charleston, the start of the trial could be delayed.

Phillips told Cini Tuesday she may file a request for a continuance. She said the defense has supplied a mitigation expert with “volumes of material” but the expert has a “tremendous back load” of work right now.

Phillips was also unsure whether the defense would have ample to time to analyze physical evidence currently in the possession of the prosecution. In February the defense filed a motion to inspect the evidence, which includes items from Mertz’s Charleston apartment along with fingerprints and other physical evidence.

Tuesday Cini ruled Ferguson must present the defense with the requested evidence on April 5. Ferguson told Cini the prosecution must keep the evidence until April 4 when the deposition of an Illinois State Police crime scene investigator involved in the case is scheduled to be videotaped.

To comply with Tuesday’s ruling, the defense must return the evidence to Ferguson two days prior to the beginning of the trial. Phillips said the arrangement may not allow the defense enough time to have an expert analyze the evidence.

“What do I do?,” Cini asked Phillips, implying it was not his responsibility to postpone a pending trial because the defense was waiting for analysis. “Your position is, ‘Judge, the experts are busy.'”

– Bill Ruthhart, editor in chief, contributed to this report