As the trial date approaches, the state's failure to release evidence is complicating the Seth Brunell murder case

If prosecutors fail to properly turn over crime scene evidence, an already delayed murder trial could be further delayed.

Seth Brunell, 45, is accused of killing Fern Feather, a transgender woman, in 2022. His second-degree murder trial is currently scheduled to begin on October 15.

The case involves the prosecution's failure to release a 3D crime scene model. Brunell's attorney, Jessica Burke, argued at a hearing Wednesday that the evidence breach should result in Lamoille County Superior Court Judge Mary Morrissey dismissing the case entirely.

“At a bare minimum,” Burke said, the judge should exclude the model and the state’s expert who interpreted the model’s data from the upcoming trial. She called the case “the most disorganized” she had ever seen.

At an earlier hearing this week, Assistant Attorney General Sophie Stratton claimed the state had turned over the evidence in question to Brunell's former attorney. But on Wednesday, the state determined that had not happened.

Instead, the state had turned over a model from another case, court documents showed.

“I sincerely apologize for this misunderstanding,” Stratton said at Wednesday’s hearing. She is prosecuting the case with Lamoille County Prosecutor Aliena Gerhard.

Judge Morrissey said she would make a decision as soon as possible, with the trial due to begin in less than two weeks. The court has already summoned 600 jurors, she said.

The crime scene model in question is called “FARO-Scan,” named after the company behind it. According to the Vermont State Police, the Brunell crime scene model included 106 million measurement points. The defense is particularly interested in the model's depiction of blood spatter.

Burke, Brunell's attorney, said her client did not want to postpone his trial. However, if the court decides that the state can use its 3D model and expert as evidence, she did not rule out the possibility that she would seek a stay so that she could hire her own expert.

Brunell pleaded not guilty to murder in April 2022. Since then he has been held without bail.

According to investigators, witnesses reported that several days before the murder, Brunell and Feather had been spending time together since they met while Brunell was hitchhiking.

On April 12, Brunell called the victim's boyfriend using Feather's cellphone and told him he had killed Feather, investigators said.

Morristown police officers arrived minutes later and found Feather lying face-up and bloody on the side of the road and Brunell sitting in the car.

According to charging documents, Brunell told officers that Feather attacked him after he made a sexual advance that he rejected because “I wasn't gay,” Brunell said. Officers reported that Brunell was not injured and had no “evidence of a struggle,” the filing said.

Feather's murder sparked great sadness and condemnation throughout Vermont. Advocacy groups and senior state officials called for an end to the transphobic rhetoric.

The year before, Gov. Phil Scott signed a law banning the LGBTQ+ “panic” defense, a legal strategy in which suspects justify violence by citing the sexual or gender identity of their victims.

In addition to the murder charge against him, Brunell was accused of attempting to escape from St. Johnsbury Prison in April 2023.