Man charged with killing Georgia teacher wants trial delayed

ATLANTA – A man is asking Georgia’s highest court to delay his trial for the slaying of a high school teacher whose disappearance remained a mystery for more than a decade.

Ryan Duke is charged with murder in the October 2005 death of teacher and beauty queen Tara Grinstead in rural Irwin County. Jury selection in his trial is scheduled to begin Monday.

News outlets report Duke’s attorneys filed an emergency motion Tuesday with the Georgia Supreme Court, saying the trial judge wrongly denied Duke funding to pay for expert witnesses in DNA, false confessions and psychology.

A similarly named co-defendant, Bo Dukes, was convicted at a separate trial last Thursday of concealing Grinstead’s death. He confessed to investigators to helping Duke burn the woman’s body in a pecan orchard.