Status Review Hearing Held in Case for Teenager Charged With Murder

A status review hearing was held remotely Tuesday in the case of a Sheridan County teenager charged with murder. Sheridan Media’s Ron Richter has the details.

Last summer, Christian Torres was charged with second degree murder for for allegedly killing his father, 47-year-old Edgar “Eddie” Jones at a home in Dayton on July 27, 2021. Torres was 15-years of age when the alleged crime occurred – he is being tried as an adult.  The remote hearing was held to determine a date or dates that would work for all of the parties involved to conduct a motion hearing that was filed by the defendant to have the case transferred to juvenile court. 2nd Judicial District Court Judge Tori Kricken out of Albany County has been assigned to preside over the transfer hearing. Due to a conflict of interest involving 4th Judicial District Court Judge Darci Phillips, 9th Judicial District Court Judge Melissa Owens of Teton County will preside over the case as the trial judge.

Judge Kricken said the transfer hearing will be held either June 27 and 28, or the week of July 18, depending on scheduling in District Court in Sheridan County. The hearing will be confidential due to the nature of the information that will be presented. Another development in the case is that the prosecution has filed a motion to amend the charge against Torres from second degree murder to first degree murder due to additional evidence that has been obtained since the original charge was filed last year. A preliminary hearing on the amended charge is scheduled to take place Monday in Circuit Court at 3 pm.