Richland Starts Search for Jury in Murder-for-Hire Case

The jury selection has begun in a murder-for-hire trial that is being tried in Richland instead of Spokane. A man is accused of hiring a hit man to kill a Washington State business man and his wife over a dispute over an oil patch in North Dakota. Reports say the man is James Henrikson, 36, and faces charges including murder for hire. He pleaded not guilty after withdrawing his original guilty plea after facing a life sentence.

So why was this trial moved to Richland?

It was moved from Spokane to Richland because of extensive publicity over the 2013 shooting death of Doug Carlile, the business man and his wife who were killed. Originally Henrikson admitted to ordering the deaths of Doug Carlile and Kristopher Clarke in federal court and that he hired a man named Timothy Suckow to kill them. Suckow has admitted to killing both men and pleaded guilty to two counts of murder-for-hire in exchange to testifying and 30 years in prison.