Staff file photo / Ed Runyan Robert L. Moore, right, is seen conferring with his attorney, Lou DeFabio, at a pretrial hearing in Moore’s murder case in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

YOUNGSTOWN — Judge Maureen Sweeney has ruled that there was no evidence contained in grand jury proceedings in a Stark County criminal case that would be relevant to the scheduled trial of Robert L. Moore in the 2009 disappearance and presumed murder of Glenna J. White.

The trial has been postponed several times in recent months, including Nov. 13, when the jury-selection process was stopped because so many potential jurors had been excused that there were not enough left to seat a jury.

The case was also postponed twice because of issues raised over the arrest of an important witness in the case. The first time was in August, just after the woman was jailed on a felonious assault charge out of Alliance.

An Oct. 24 filing from Lou DeFabio, Moore’s attorney, in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, stated that the witness was at an Alliance convenience store Aug. 15 and struck another woman twice with an object, resulting in the victim having a head wound that required six stitches.

The alleged victim said the other woman threatened her numerous times, including a threat to burn the victim’s house down, DeFabio’s filing stated.

The witness was jailed Aug. 18, meaning she would not be available to testify if the Moore trial would have started Aug. 21, so Sweeney postponed the trial.

The trial was postponed again Oct. 2 because a prospective juror uttered remarks in front of other potential jurors that could have been viewed as having tainted the jury pool.

Another postponement came Oct. 10 because DeFabio asked for time to obtain additional information on the facts surrounding a Stark County grand jury refusing to indict the witness in the felonious assault case.

DeFabio’s Oct. 24 filing gave his reasons for wanting a transcript to be provided of the grand jury proceedings in Stark County. He wanted Sweeney to look at the transcript and determine whether anything in the transcript might be of evidentiary value to Moore’s murder case. Grand jury proceedings are generally secret, so only the judge looked at the transcript.

In her Nov. 7 ruling, the judge stated that she reviewed the transcripts and found that “there is no relevant testimony that would in any way benefit the defendant” or the prosecution.

After failing to seat a jury on Nov. 13, the trial is now rescheduled for Jan. 8. This time, instead of 50 potential jurors being called for the trial, the number will be 75.

Moore, 53, is charged with murder in the 2009 disappearance and presumed murder of Glenna J. White, 16. White’s body was never found. She was visiting a home on Alden Ave. in Smith Township when she left late June 2, 2009, with Moore. She had told others in the home that Moore had touched her inappropriately or tried to rape her, prosecutors said. Moore’s girlfriend lived at the home.

erunyan@vindy.com