Seth Brunell appeared remotely for a hearing on Oct. 2, 2024. ScreenshotFailure by prosecutors to properly turn over crime scene evidence could further postpone an already delayed murder trial.Seth Brunell, 45, is accused of killing Fern Feather, a transgender woman, in 2022. Currently, his second degree murder trial is scheduled to begin on Oct. 15.At issue in the case is prosecutors’ failure to turn over a 3D crime scene model. Brunell’s attorney, Jessica Burke, argued at a hearing Wednesday that the evidence violation should lead Lamoille County Superior Court Judge Mary Morrissey to dismiss the case entirely. “At the absolute bare minimum,” Burke said, the judge should exclude the model and the state’s expert witness who interpreted the model’s data from the impending trial. She called the case “the most disorganized” she’s ever experienced.At an earlier hearing this week, prosecutors alleged the state had turned over the evidence in question to Brunell’s previous attorney. But by Wednesday, the state discovered that hadn’t occurred.Instead, the state had turned over a model from a different case, court documents showed. “I truly apologize for that misunderstanding,” Aliena Gerhard, Lamoille County’s State’s Attorney said at Wednesday’s hearing. She’s prosecuting the case alongside Assistant Attorney General Sophie Stratton. Judge Morrissey said she would issue a decision as soon as possible, given the trial is set to begin in less than two weeks. Already, the court has summoned 600 jurors, she said. The crime scene model in question is called a “FARO scan,” named for the company behind it. The model of the Brunell crime scene included 106 million measurement points, according to Vermont State Police testimony. The defense is particularly interested in the model’s depiction of blood spatter. Burke, Brunell’s attorney, said her client does not want to postpone his trial. But if the court determines the state can use its 3D model and the expert witness as evidence, she did not rule out the possibility that she would request a delay so she could hire her own expert.Brunell pleaded not guilty to the murder charge in April 2022. He has been held without bail since.According to investigators, witnesses reported that Brunell and Feather had been spending time together since meeting each other while Brunell was hitchhiking a few days before the killing.On April 12, Brunell used Feather’s cellphone and called the victim’s friend, telling that person he had killed Feather, according to investigators.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.Brunell, according to the charging documents, told officers Feather had attacked him after making a sexual advance, which Brunell said he had rejected because “I wasn’t gay.” Officers reported that Brunell had no injuries nor “indications of an altercation,” the filing stated.Feather’s killing led to an outpouring of grief and condemnation across Vermont, with advocacy groups and the state’s top officials calling for an end to transphobic rhetoric. The year prior, Gov. Phil Scott signed a law banning the LGBTQ+ “panic” defense, a legal strategy in which suspects justify violence by citing their victims’ sexual or gender identity.   In addition to the murder count against him, Brunell was charged with attempting to escape from the St. Johnsbury prison in April 2023. Correction: A previous version of this story misattributed a quotation.Read the story on VTDigger here: With trial date looming, the state’s failure to turn over evidence complicates Seth Brunell murder case.