A judge has declined a request from prosecutors to keep parts of the Faith Hedgepeth murder case sealed, or private, ahead of the upcoming trial in September.
Hedgepeth is the UNC student found dead in an off-campus apartment in 2012.
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In Tuesday's hearing at the Durham County Courthouse, prosecutors asked a judge to keep future pre-trial motions out of the public's view. On Thursday, the motion to seal was denied.
A trial date is set for Sept. 28.
Miguel Salguero Olivares is charged with Hedgepeth's murder and appeared in person at the hearing.
Prosecutors said at the center of this request to seal future pre-trial motions is Hedgepeth's roommate, Karina Rosario, who's been called to testify at trial.
They claim past filings from Salguero Olivares' lawyers have cast the roommate's credibility into question and called some of those filings out of context and inadmissible.
Prosecutors say those filings, combined with extensive media coverage of the case, could taint a jury pool.
"What it has done has thrown gasoline on the smoldering ember of a fire where everybody is looking at Karena Rosario," special prosecutor Lisa Coltrain said.
The roommate faces no charges in the case.
Olivares' lawyers pushed back and argued that he has a right to have case proceedings, including pretrial motions open to the public. They said the filings of note were necessary to secure witness testimony.
"To seal everything at this point...it almost creates an issue of trust," Olivares' defense lawyer James Rainsford said.
RELATED: NC to pay more than $16,000 for out-of-state witnesses to testify about Faith Hedgepeth's murder
Leading up to the trial, pre-trial motions have revealed how the trial may play out, including through key evidence and witnesses. Salguero-Olivares' lawyers said they do plan to file more pre-trial motions. Superior Court Judge Keith Gregory on Tuesday dropped a June 15 filing deadline in the case, giving both sides more time to file pretrial motions.
Gregory expressed concern over keeping all future pretrial motions in the case out of the public's view. He paused arguments late Tuesday. The hearing is expected to resume at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday.
In April, court documents revealed that the state would pay for travel expenses for out-of-state witnesses, one who lived in Washington and another in New Jersey, to testify in the trial.
