WASHINGTON — A trial date was set Friday for the two lawyers a grand jury indicted earlier this week on multiple charges for terrorizing a McLean couple.
Almost a year after prosecutors say the Schmuhls terrorized Alecia’s former boss and his wife, they’ll stand trial in Fairfax County.
A grand jury indicted Andrew Schmuhl on seven charges including abduction, malicious assault, armed burglary and use of a firearm in a felony. His wife, Alecia Schmuhl faces six charges, including abduction, malicious assault, armed burglary and eluding police.
The pair allegedly bound and stabbed Leo Fisher and his wife Sue Duncan during a torture session that police have said lasted for hours.
On Friday, Andrew Schmuhl’s defense team asked the judge for more time to prepare for the trial, citing a four-hour-long pretrial hearing where the prosecution presented its evidence in the case.
Calling the case “complex and high profile,” the Schmuhls’ defense team initially wanted a start date in January 2016, but the judge set the date of Nov. 2, 2015. The jury trial is expected to take between eight days and two weeks.
Several witnesses testified in a hearing last week, including responding police officers who said they found Fisher and Duncan in their home bloody and bruised.
Duncan had been stabbed and shot by a bullet that grazed her head. Fisher had his throat cut, was beaten, stabbed and had been hit with a stun gun.
Fisher testified he told police he recognized the man who tortured he and his wife for hours and said it was Andrew Schmuhl, the husband of his former employee.
Police chased the Schmuhls in their car and eventually pulled them over in a parking lot where the found weapons, bloody clothes and Andrew Schmuhl wearing only an adult diaper.
