During a pretrial motions hearing last week, the court expected to hear whether or not the defense wanted a joint trial for the couple. However, the hearing was continued because Stoia’s attorney Ghislaine M. Storr Burks was unable to attend.

Earlier this month, defense attorney Amy Harper filed a motion for change of venue, as well as motions to suppress the defendants’ statements. The motions are expected to be heard at a hearing Nov. 13 at 9:30 a.m.

Storr Burks filed a motion for change of venue on behalf of both Stoia and Massey, asking the court to transfer the trial to another county more than 75 miles away from Orange.

The motion states more than 20 media outlets covered the incident and comments posted by the public “indicate a pre-determination that due to the death of the child, the defendants are not only guilty but guilty of felonious conduct ….”

Attached to the motion are more than 50 pages of public comments from media coverage as well as a GoFundMe page established by the victim’s family. The motion states the GoFundMe page, which includes information about the family and the incident, was shared more than 10,000 times on Facebook and 527 people donated money to the page.