Oden Gutierrez, the 17-year-old accused of killing 83-year-old Thomas Powell and stealing his car last November and who later escaped from a juvenile jail, can get a fair trial in San Juan County, a judge ruled Wednesday.

But state District Judge Sandra Price said the court would summon three times as many people as normal to ensure the court can find 12 jurors and two alternates who are unfamiliar with Gutierrez's case, the Farmington Daily Times reported.

If not, Price said, she will rehear a motion for a change of venue, the Daily Times said.

Gutierrez's public defender Stephen Taylor had argued that extensive media coverage of the teen's flight, recapture and later escape from the Sant Juan County Juvenile Detention Center on March 11 would prejudice any potential jury, the Daily Times reported.

But Deputy District Attorney Lisa Kuykendall argued that San Juan County is so large that many people called for jury duty won't have heard of the murder or escape and those that have would be able to be fair, the paper said.

"The jurors of San Juan County can set aside what they read in the newspaper," Kuykendall said. "You can bring in enough people that it will be a fair trial."

"We'll bring in three (jury) panels over a two-day period and see how that goes before the court rules whether a change of venue is appropriate," said Price in denying the motion to move Gutierrez's trial out of San Juan County. "I don't believe there's already been a presumption shown."

Gutierrez's trial date will likely be set for late August or early September, Price said.

Meanwhile, the teen has been held in solitary confinement in the county's adult detention center, an exception to the state law prohibiting juveniles who have not yet been convicted to be held in an adult facility, the Daily Times reported. 

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