Spokane murder-for-hire suspect requests new trial location

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — A man accused of plotting a Spokane murder-for-hire has requested his trial be moved to Richland or another eastern Washington venue.

KREM-TV reports that lawyers for James Henrikson filed paperwork Friday to move the trial out of Spokane County because of excessive media attention in the area.

Henrikson is a felon linked to fraud and terror in the North Dakota oil patch. He was sent to Washington state to face federal charges accusing him of ordering the killings of a business associate and one of his former trucking company employees.

In August, Spokane County Jail officials say Henrikson tried to escape his fifth-floor cell using knotted-together sheets.