Lawyers for ex-Gitmo commander concerned over pretrial publicity

John Nettleton, retired Navy captain, charged with hindering death probe

JACKSONVILLE, Fla – Attorneys for a now-retired Jacksonville Navy captain who is accused of lying and covering up facts in the death of a former Marine on Guantanamo Bay have told a federal judge they are concerned about pretrial publicity in the case.

John Nettleton is charged with obstructing justice and nine other charges related to the death of Christopher Tur four years ago on the Navy base. On Monday afternoon, his attorneys filed a number of motions ahead of the trial, which is scheduled to begin in January 2020.

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In one motion, attorneys cite a News4Jax story as one example of media coverage of the case. They claim the coverage and the larged number of people in Jacksonville who are in the military or related to a service member could mean a lot of potential jurors will have ideas about the case or the military.

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Attorneys are asking a judge to let them submit a questionnaire that would be filled out before jury selection and to question potential jurors individually about those topics.

Another motion seeks to dismiss some of the charges, essentially saying they overlap. Attorneys are also trying to exclude certain topics of evidence from the trial.