Due to excessive pre-trial publicity, a jury will be brought in from Lee County for the disturbing trial of a crematory operator facing nearly 800 charges. Judge James Bodiford ruled Thursday that a jury will be chosen in Lee County to hear Marsh’s trial on 787 state felony charges. Lee’s population and demographics apparently make it similar enough to Walker.

Marsh's attorney Ken Poston appeared less than satisfied by the ruling.

“I don’t want to complain about half a loaf,” Poston said. “We would prefer to be trying our case down there. As it stands, we are going to be collecting the jury there, bringing them back up here for what the district attorney characterizes as four months.”

Marsh, born and raised in Walker County, operated the Tri-State Crematory located in his hometown. Authorities say he accepted money for agreeing to perform more than 300 cremations, but never did. In February 2002, authorities found at least 334 bodies dumped throughout the crematory property in Noble, Ga.

Judge Bodiford ruled in December of 2003 that Marsh’s trial would remain in Walker, despite Poston’s insistence that it be moved after the incident grabbed both local and national headlines. Poston also said he also feared for his client’s safety after receiving numerous death threats.

"The court does not believe that the possibility of danger to defendant, should the trial be held in Walker County, is any greater than if the trial was held in another venue," Judge Bodiford wrote.

The judge also denied Marsh access to state funds to pay for his expert witnesses. Bodiford said Marsh's monthly income was more than $500 above the U.S. poverty guidelines and that he did not qualify as an indigent defendant.

In March 2004, a class-action suit filed on behalf of nearly 1,600 relatives who had sent their deceased to either Tri-State or 58 other crematories it dealt with was settled. The suit accused Marsh of negligence and fraud, and also names Marsh’s family members who served as officers at the crematory and funeral homes that sent corpses to the crematory.

The plaintiffs will receive an estimated $40 million. The funeral homes, located throughout the South, agreed to pay $36 million and the insurer for Tri-State is expected to pay $3.5 million.

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