HUTCHINSON, Kan. — A Kansas Supreme Court hearing for a Hutchinson man has been continued at the request of the Reno County District Attorney's office.
Brennan Trass is serving a life sentence in the 2015 shooting death of Jose Morales. Morales was shot three times while he had his back to Trass during a drug deal. Trass has maintained it was self-defense. Trass was convicted of first-degree murder and criminal possession of a firearm by a felon. He is appealing his case citing speedy trial issues and that the court erred by having Trass represent himself in court.
Trass represented himself at the request of the courts after he exhausted all of the possible attorneys in the area. Trass went through 13 members of counsel before the action was taken by Judge Trish Rose.
But during the process of making a transition from one attorney to another, Tras was given a mental evaluation at the request of the defense and was found to be competent to stand trial. However, a formal hearing to make a ruling of the court was never held. While it might not be a major detail in the appeal, District Attorney Tom Stanton wanted to make sure all bases are covered and asked that the case be remanded back to court for that hearing.
If Judge Rose goes with the competency report, then the case will go back to the Kansas Supreme Court to address the appeal, if not, then questions will have to be addressed about where the case could go from there.
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