Judge keeps Douglas County murder case on track for August trial
Public defenders tried to exit Aaron Wright’s murder case, but Judge Amy Hanley kept the defense team in place and preserved the August trial track.
Judge Amy Hanley kept Douglas County’s murder case against Aaron Blake Wright moving toward an August trial after rejecting a public defender request to withdraw from the defense team.
Wright is charged with second-degree murder in the stabbing death of Jina Reyes-Woehler, a 35-year-old mother of two and member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. Reyes-Woehler was found dead behind the former VFW building in the 1800 block of Massachusetts Street on Aug. 29, 2025, placing a violent downtown Lawrence killing on the county’s felony docket.
The Douglas County Public Defender’s Office asked to step away after Wright repeatedly said he was unhappy with his lawyers, including in letters to a supervising attorney. He also tried to file motions on his own even though he was already represented. But when the issue reached Hanley, Wright did not ask for new lawyers. He said he wanted better communication with the attorneys he already had.
Hanley ruled that Wright’s current lawyers were competent and experienced, and she told him that trial strategy belongs to counsel, not the defendant. That kept the case on its existing schedule and avoided another change in representation in a murder prosecution.
The public defenders had wanted to withdraw from all three of Wright’s cases, not just the murder charge. In Douglas County, he also faces burglary, theft, criminal threat, battery on a law enforcement officer and disorderly conduct charges.
The murder case has already moved through several key stages. Wright was bound over for trial on March 24, 2026, after the preliminary hearing, and a Douglas County judge ordered a competency evaluation in December 2025 to determine whether he could understand the proceedings and assist in his defense. Police alleged in court records that Wright had blood on his clothing and a knife in his pocket, and that he knew Reyes-Woehler had been stabbed without being told her injuries.
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