{"id":36079,"date":"2026-07-03T08:56:41","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T13:56:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/?p=36079"},"modified":"2026-07-03T08:56:41","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T13:56:41","slug":"east-grand-forks-murder-trial-delayed-to-oct-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/east-grand-forks-murder-trial-delayed-to-oct-6\/","title":{"rendered":"East Grand Forks Murder Trial Delayed to Oct. 6"},"content":{"rendered":"

East Grand Forks Murder Trial Delayed to Oct. 6<\/h2>\n

Grand Forks<\/strong> (trfnews.i234.me<\/a>) \u2014 A murder trial involving an East Grand Forks man has been delayed until Oct. 6.<\/p>\n

Vincent Chase Villarreal, 34, is accused of killing his father in Grand Forks nearly six years ago.<\/p>\n

Villarreal faces one count of murder with extreme indifference. The Class AA felony carries a possible life sentence.<\/p>\n

Defense Seeks More Review Time<\/h2>\n

Defense attorney Ward Johnson requested more time during a court hearing Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Johnson said the defense recently received about 60,000 video files connected to the case.<\/p>\n

He told the court that reviewing the material would take significant time.<\/p>\n

Johnson said he wanted to examine the evidence closely and avoid missing important details.<\/p>\n

District Judge Theodore Sandberg approved the delay. However, he warned that another continuance was unlikely.<\/p>\n

The trial was first expected to begin in March. It was later moved to July 14.<\/p>\n

\"Vincent
Vincent Chase Villarreal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Father Died at Grand Forks Motel<\/h2>\n

Court records say Villarreal allegedly killed 55-year-old Jeffrey Allen Shulzitski on Dec. 5, 2020.<\/p>\n

The death happened at the former Budget Inn Express motel in Grand Forks.<\/p>\n

The motel has since been demolished.<\/p>\n

Authorities initially considered the death suspicious. An autopsy later ruled the death a homicide.<\/p>\n

The listed cause was a gunshot wound, according to court records.<\/p>\n

Villarreal was arrested in Minnesota in January 2021 on unrelated charges.<\/p>\n

He remained in Minnesota custody for several years.<\/p>\n

In February 2025, he was transferred to the Grand Forks County Correctional Center.<\/p>\n

The transfer allowed North Dakota prosecutors to move forward with the murder case.<\/p>\n

Trial Now Scheduled for October<\/h2>\n

Sandberg said the case was extremely serious and required enough preparation time.<\/p>\n

The judge also made clear that Oct. 6 should remain the final trial date.<\/p>\n

Case information may be available through the North Dakota Courts<\/a> website.<\/p>\n

County information is available through the Grand Forks County<\/a> website.<\/p>\n

Villarreal has not been convicted. The charge remains an allegation unless proven beyond a reasonable doubt.<\/p>\n

I’m Chris Harper, reporting for TRF News<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The murder trial for East Grand Forks man Vincent Villarreal has been delayed until Oct. 6 as attorneys review thousands of video files.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscp_schedule_draft_date":"","_wpscp_schedule_republish_date":"","_wpscppro_advance_schedule":false,"_wpscppro_advance_schedule_date":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[12],"tags":[772,6547,819,820,457,1505,20210,1506],"class_list":["post-36079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","tag-crime","tag-delayed","tag-east","tag-forks","tag-grand","tag-murder","tag-oct","tag-trial","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36079"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36188,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36079\/revisions\/36188"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}