The second trial of Christopher Peterson, accused in seven Northwest Indiana shotgun slayings, will be held in Valparaiso rather than moved out of Porter County as his lawyers had asked, Porter County Superior Court Judge Thomas Webber has ruled.
Court-appointed lawyers for Peterson, 22, of Gary had argued that pretrial publicity in the case had prejudiced Porter County jurors.
Webber, however, said Friday that the majority of press coverage surrounding the case had occurred not in Porter County but in neighboring Lake County, where Peterson was acquitted last month of two murders and two attempted murders.
In the upcoming trial, set to begin Feb. 18, Peterson will face charges in the deaths of Harchand Dhaliwal, 54, of Gary, shot at a service station in Portage, and Maria Meitzler, 48, of South Haven, who was shot while working as a night clerk at a Portage motel.
