The trial of 16-year-old Rachelle Waterman, charged with her mother's murder, and of two young men accused of committing the deed at the girl's behest has been rescheduled for August, according to the Ketchikan Superior Court clerk's office and a defense attorney.
The trial date originally had been set for today when the three suspects, including 24-year-old Brian Radel and Jason Arrant, who has since turned 25, were arraigned on Nov. 29.
At a hearing late last week, the trial was rescheduled for Aug. 22, assistant public advocate Steven Wells, Waterman's court-appointed attorney, said Tuesday.
The trial is be heard in the town of Craig on Prince of Wales Island by a Superior Court judge, Patricia Collins, who will travel to Craig from Juneau, according to the Ketchikan clerk's office.
All three suspects are charged with first-degree murder in the death early Nov. 14 of Lauri Waterman, a 48-year-old Craig teachers aide. In addition, they're charged with conspiracy to commit murder, second-degree murder, kidnapping, burglary, vehicle theft and tampering with evidence.
Arrant, of Klawock, and Radel, of Thorne Bay, also have been charged with criminal mischief and additional counts of tampering with evidence. They remain in jail at Ketchikan Correctional Center, each held in lieu of $250,000 bail.
Waterman is incarcerated at Lemon Creek Correctional Center in Juneau, where she's been held since Nov. 30. Her bail has been set at $150,000.
In late December, Wells tried but failed to have Waterman's bail reduced to $50,000 and to have the girl placed under the 24-hour supervision of her father, Carl "Doc" Waterman, a Craig real estate agent, for most of the time.
According to Alaska State Troopers, Rachelle Waterman persuaded Arrant, her 24-year-old boyfriend, to kill her mother and had discussed her wishes with him at least three times between the summer and shortly before the woman was killed.
Arrant agreed to the plot and enlisted Radel, who had dated Waterman at one time. The girl told Arrant that both she and her father would be out of town the weekend of Nov. 13-14, according to troopers.
Radel abducted the woman from her home late on Nov. 13, bound and gagged her and drove her in her own van to a secluded spot about 30 miles north of Craig. There, in the presence of Arrant, Radel bludgeoned Lauri Waterman to death, the troopers said.
He botched the job so badly, however, that the two men abandoned their original plot to make it seem as if the woman had driven off the road because she was drunk, they said.
Radel, with Arrant following in his vehicle, then drove the dead woman to the end of a logging road elsewhere on the island where he set the van and the body on fire, according to the troopers.
The case has achieved international notoriety, as much for the Internet blog, or diary, that the girl kept for more than a year as for the nature of the charges.
When troopers confronted Arrant and Radel with their suspicions, the two men initially and separately admitted their involvement in the killing but tried to shield Waterman, according to troopers.
Both men at first denied that Waterman, an A student, athlete and musician who had had sexual relations with each of them, was involved, troopers said. Afterward, they said she instigated the plot.
Officials have said that the trial date would likely be postponed as the case moves through the courts, and another postponement is possible.
Each of the defendants is being represented by a court-appointed attorney.
Daily News reporter Peter Porco can be reached at pporco@adn.com or 257-4582.
