Associate Circuit Judge Thomas Alley will hear a motion today (Wednesday) for a reduction in bond filed by the attorney for Samuel Borntreger, 39, Summer Shade, Kentucky, charged with the poisoning death of his wife Anna Yoder Borntreger in 2006.
Public defender Joshua Smith argued in his request for bail reduction that Borntreger would not be a flight risk because he would reside with his parents. Borntreger, now being held at the Harrison County Jail, attended a hearing last Wednesday afternoon in Harrison County Circuit Court along with his attorney.
Judge Alley set a hearing on the motion for bond reduction for 8:30 a.m. this morning (Wednesday) in Circuit Court. His bond is now set at $250,000, cash only.
Harrison County Prosecuting Attorney Cristine Stallings had been in plea negotiations with Borntreger. The deadline for the plea offer expired early last week. “It’s now off the table,” Stallings said Monday morning.
Borntreger is charged with first-degree murder which carries a possible sentence of life imprisonment. Borntreger confessed to Kentucky authorities that he had poisoned his wife with battery acid and antifreeze while the couple was living in Harrison County.
Stallings said the state is still awaiting results from an autopsy performed on Mrs. Borntregger, whose body was disinterred Jan. 12 from an Amish cemetery near Bethany.
Stallings said she will argue against any bond reduction at Wednesday’s hearing.
“I am concerned that he is a flight risk and a safety risk,” she said.