LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A retrial date is set for later this year for a man accused of shooting and killing two men in a crowded Louisville restaurant in 2021.
Karson Reitz is accused of fatally shooting 48-year-old Michael Miller and 51-year-old Bradley Cross at the Preston Highway Roosters location on Dec. 23, 2021. In November, a mistrial was declared in Reitz's first trial.
In court Thursday, Reitz asked the judge to grant him work release. The 23-year-old is currently serving time in the Home Incarceration Program while he awaits his retrial. He faces two murder charges and several wanton endangerment charges.
His latest hearing was cut short because Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Sarah Clay had to leave early.
The defense called the owner of Unlimited Landscapes, Tricia Butler, to the stand who said she would hire Reitz to work for her. She said he would stay in the equipment office in Middletown to do equipment maintenance.
When the mistrial was declared in Nov. 2023, Jefferson Circuit Judge Annie O'Connell had not decided what text messages and parts of the victims' history could be introduced, but Reitz's attorney kept bringing them up.
"The court finds that there is a manifest necessity to grant a mistrial in the case as that bell cannot be un-rung," O'Connell said. "The jury cannot unhear or not follow the court's admonishing."
According to court documents, Reitz was seen on surveillance video shooting the two men inside the crowded dining room. A bartender who witnessed the incident said the restaurant was packed that night, and that there was a fistfight between Reitz and Miller before the shooting.
An arrest report for Reitz said he knew both victims. The bartender told WDRB News that Reitz, his dad and the Miller family were regulars at the Okolona restaurant.
During the trial, the defense said Reitz shot Miller after allegedly Miller knocked his father out and one of the four bullets hit Cross by mistake.
A new trial is set for December, nearly three years after the incident. A new jury will be selected and the case will start all over again.
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- Frustrations, lawsuit facing Roosters restaurant months after double murder
- Okolona restaurant reopens 4 days after 2 killed in shooting
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- Roosters employee calls deadly double shooting 'a worst nightmare scenario'
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