Carpenter pleads not guilty

By Lyndsie Kiebert
Reader Staff

Judith Carpenter, the Coeur d’Alene woman accused of shooting and killing 79-year-old Hope resident Shirley Ramey in 2017, pleaded not guilty Jan. 13 to a charge of first-degree murder.

Judith Carpenter.

Bonner County District Court Judge Barbara Buchanan requested Carpenter’s plea during the Jan. 13 arraignment and went on to ask legal counsel on both sides for a tentative trial date. Representing Carpenter, attorney Joseph Sullivan said a June date would be best, seeing as they are still waiting for some key DNA evidence to come back from the state forensics lab in Boise.

“We’re in limbo regarding what kinds of experts we’d need to bring on board,” Sullivan said at the hearing.

Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall agreed to the June date, requesting at least eight days to complete the trial. Buchanan then set Tuesday, June 9 as the date to begin Carpenter’s trial.

A pre-trial hearing is set for May 22 at 9 a.m. at the Bonner County Courthouse.

Case information was filed in October 2019 — more than six months prior to the June trial date, — meaning the defendant must waive her right to a “speedy trial,” Buchanan said. Carpenter agreed during the Jan. 13 hearing to waive that right.