News Photo by Steve Schulwitz From left to right, Dennis Grenkowicz, defense attorney for Josh Wirgau, and Devin Pommerenke and Patrick Cherry, defense attorneys for Brad Srebnik, appear in Alpena’s 26th Circuit Court on Friday for a motion hearing in the murder trial of Wirgau and Srebnik.

ALPENA — Attorneys for Brad Srebnik and Josh Wirgau, accused in two 2021 Alpena murders, debated specifics regarding the two men’s upcoming trial at a hearing in Alpena’s 26th Circuit Court on Friday.

A two-week, two-jury trial won’t be easy, but separate trials would create even greater headaches in the form of a tainted jury pool, exposed through the media to in-depth details about the killings that will come out at trial, Judge Ed Black said.

Police say Srebnik killed teenager Brynn Bills and enlisted Wirgau’s help burying her in Wirgau’s back yard in early August 2021. Police believe Srebnik, aided by Wirgau, shot Alpena woman Abby Hill about seven weeks later near the Holcim Alpena plant to keep her from going to police about Bills’ murder.

Srebnik and Wirgau deny the charges. Both men attended Friday’s hearing via videoconference from the Alpena County Jail.

Ongoing media coverage since the September 2021 discovery of Bills’ body could mean a tough time finding impartial jurors even for one trial, said attorney Patrick Cherry, who, along with attorney Devin Pommerenke, represents Srebnik.

Cherry asked Black to sequester the jury during the trial’s expected two-week run, citing expected news coverage of the trial and jurors’ temptation to read it.

Black called that solution both impractical and unnecessary. He agreed to let attorneys create a questionnaire to help eliminate potential jurors who believe their knowledge of the case would keep them from being fair.

During the trial, attorneys will present separate opening and closing statements to each jury. Jurors for one defendant may sometimes have to leave the courtroom while the other jury hears testimony only admissible in one case, Black said.

Check out this interactive timeline of police’s investigation into the deaths of Brynn Bills and Abby Hill. Story continues below timeline.

Cherry renewed a request that Black recuse himself from the trial. A procedural question Black asked Rick Steiger, attorney for Wirgau, at a previous hearing implied Black had already made up his mind about the charges, Cherry said.

Black denied the request and the accusation. His question only reflected an effort to plan for a complicated trial, Black said.

“I don’t have a bias,” he said. “I’m just trying to figure out how the heck we’re going to do this.”

Also at the hearing, Black reinstated a gun charge against Wirgau that was dismissed by 88th District Court Judge Alan Curtis at the conclusion of a weeklong hearing in June.

Both defendants face felony charges of possessing a firearm illegally because of previous felony convictions. That automatically qualifies them for a separate charge of felony firearm — or possession of a gun during the commission of a felony.

Felony firearm, with its sometimes circular logic, is currently the center of a debate at the state level, but current state standards compelled Black to renew the charge dismissed by Curtis, “regardless of whether I like it or don’t like it,” Black said.

Srebnik and Wirgau each completed two-year prison sentences last month for felony firearm charges related to an incident prosecutors say was related to the deaths of Bills and Hill. During that incident, four days before Hill was shot, she, Srebnik, and Wirgau allegedly hijacked a tow truck driver while holding guns.

Over the objections of defense attorneys on Friday, Black said the prosecution could let jurors hear recordings of police interviews of both Hill, conducted about a week before she died, and Wirgau, just prior to the discovery of Hill’s body.

He considered and rejected motions by both defendants to dismiss first-degree murder charges.

At a preliminary exam earlier this year, the prosecution only linked Srebnik to Bills’ death via a witness known for lying, not enough to substantiate a murder charge, Cherry said.

Though a witness and Wirgau’s own words to police place Wirgau at the scene of Hill’s death, nothing proves he was part of her murder, Steiger told Black.

Danielle Hagaman-Clark, chief of the Criminal Justice Bureau for the Michigan Attorney General’s Office and prosecuting the cases alongside Alpena County Prosecutor Cynthia Muszynski, disagreed. Witness testimony showed Wirgau knew Hill would be killed, did nothing to stop it, and helped hide the crime, she said.

Black said the murder charges could stand for jurors to consider at trial, scheduled to begin Jan. 29, with jury selection on Jan. 10 and 11.