Why is a Monterey County judge overseeing the Kristin Smart murder trial?
When the trial of convicted serial killer Rex Krebs was moved to Monterey County in 2001, San Luis Obispo Superior Court Judge Barry LaBarbera traveled with the case.
Now, another high-profile murder case is moving north, but this time, a local judge will not be going along to oversee it.
Typically in a change of venue, the judge for the home court often travels with the case, and if they can’t, another judge from the home court is supposed to replace them.
So why is a Monterey County judge overseeing the Kristin Smart case?
It turns out that all of the San Luis Obispo judges said they would not be available to travel with the case, the Judicial Council of California confirmed to The Tribune, and as a result the council requested a judge be assigned from Monterey County.
How the process works
When a change-of-venue motion is granted, the presiding judge of the transferring court, in this case Superior Court Judge Craig van Rooyen, would try the case or select another San Luis Obispo Superior Court judge to travel in his place.
However, if the transferring court says it does not have the resources to have a judge travel, it indicates this when it notifies the Judicial Council of California of the venue change.
Then, an available judge in the new court or a judge from the temporary assigned judges program will try the case.
In the case of the Flores trial, San Luis Obispo Superior Court told the Judicial Council of California there would not be a judge available to travel with the case, so a Monterey judge was chosen instead.
Who is the Monterey County judge?
Monterey County Superior Court Judge Jennifer O’Keefe will oversee the trial, which will be held at the Salinas courthouse, according to court spokeswoman Norma Ramirez-Zapata.
O’Keefe was appointed to the bench in March 2021 by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
She served as a deputy public defender at the Monterey County Office of the Public Defender from 2010 to 2017, and then served as chief public defender until her judge appointment in 2021.
Before moving to Monterey, O’Keefe served as a deputy public defender at the Fresno County Office of the Public Defender from 2005 to 2010.
According to the Monterey County Weekly, O’Keefe was the first attorney from the Monterey County Public Defender’s Office to be appointed as a judge in more than 40 years.
“It’s huge. It’s been a long-time coming and Jennifer so deserves it,” Public Defender Sue Chapman told the Monterey County Weekly in March 2021. “She’s highly qualified, has a strength of character, a keen intellect and she’s an experienced trial attorney defending the most serious cases.
“She’s an incredible woman and always does the right thing,” Chapman said.
When is the trial?
The trial is scheduled to begin on May 31, but there has not been a pretrial conference or hearing added to the schedule in Monterey County.
Both cases now show up on Monterey County Superior Court’s case search, but neither has a hearing date scheduled online. Ramirez-Zapata told The Tribune hearings have yet to be scheduled.
When the Krebs trial was moved to Monterey County in 2001, the start date of the trial was pushed back about nine months. It’s unclear whether something similar might happen in this case or if it will move to trial more quickly.
