Preliminary hearing of murder case is delayed

After more than one month as a free man, Gene Kirkpatrick made his way back to Fargo for a court hearing here. That hearing lasted only about 15 minutes. Kirkpatrick's new attorney, Matt Martin, argues he has not been on the case long and hasn't had sufficient time to prepare.

The judge denied a continuance earlier this week for lack of clarification why Kirkpatrick fired his attorneys from Oklahoma. His new attorneys SAY Kirkpatrick didn't talk or meet with the old attorneys until he posted bail in February. They say Kirkpatrick lost confidence in them.

“Unfortunately I have not done what I consider to be a complete and thorough review of all those materials.”

“Frankly, we're happy to see that the defendant is present here today. This is a homicide case. Bail was set in a significant amount of money. There's always some question as to whether or not a defendant's going to show up.”

We also heard about a new startling accusation against Kirkpatrick. Prosecutors say he tried to call Gattuso's daughter, his granddaughter, at school. She is the center of the case and a custody battle is now going on between the Kirkpatrick and Gattuso families.

Prosecutors admit there's a lot of evidence in this case to go through so they were not surprised by the delay.

Tags: travis skonseng, crime, fargo, gattuso, news, kirkpatrick