The pretrial hearing for Mason Sisk that was scheduled for Wednesday, April 5 has been moved to Friday, April 14. The jury trial itself is still set to begin Monday, April 17.

Sisk is charged with four counts of capital murder stemming from the deaths of five of his family members in 2019.

In two orders by Judge Chadwick Wise on Wednesday, he reset the pretrial hearing for April 14 and required additional pretrial motions be submitted by April 12 so that all pending motions could be considered.

On Monday, April 3, Judge Wise denied a motion for the court to “state grounds for denial of motion to suppress” – meaning the judge will not respond to the defense’s motion asking for explanation of a prior denial for their request to suppress statements made by Sisk at the scene.

Also on April 3, the state filed a motion “to prevent Mason Sisk (‘the Defendant’) from discussing the issue of ‘false confessions’” during the trial, and asked the judge if the motion was denied for a pretrial hearing “on the determination for the qualifications of an alleged expert on the issue of ‘false confessions’.”

Back in March, Judge Wise had yet to rule on the eligibility of Dr. Jeffrey Neuschatz as an expert witness for the defense. The defense hopes to call Dr. Neuschatz as an expert in the field of cognitive psychology and confessions.

They introduced him as a potential witness at a pretrial hearing in January and the state objected to his testimony then. Judge Wise decided to allow it, but withheld a ruling on if he could be used as an expert witness at the trial.

Sisk’s previous trial in September was declared a mistrial by Circuit Court Judge Chadwick Wise after the phone of Mary Sisk, the slain stepmother of the accused, was unlocked by the FBI as the trial was under way.