LINCOLN — A judge has ruled that suspected killer Aubrey Trail’s statements to police were not coerced and can be used at his trial in June.
Trail’s attorney had challenged the willingness of his statements to authorities. But Saline County District Judge Vicky Johnson ruled Monday that the roughly 20 hours of interrogations of Trail by investigators were in a “non-oppressive, professional atmosphere” in which the officers were “business-like and not unduly aggressive.”
Trail, according to the judge, appeared “relaxed, convivial at times, and alert” during the interviews, and “expressly denied” that he was offered any deals by his interrogators. Any discussion of money during the interviews, Johnson ruled, was concerning Trail’s own money for use to buy items at a jail canteen.
“In fact, the evidence is clear that the defendant participated voluntarily in his questioning,” Johnson ruled.
Trail, 52, and his girlfriend, Bailey Boswell, 25, are accused in the slaying and dismemberment of Lincoln store clerk Sydney Loofe.
Loofe, 24, disappeared after arranging a date with Boswell via an online dating app, Tinder, on Nov. 15, 2017. Her body was found three weeks later, in plastic bags in a rural area about 60 miles west of Wilber, Nebraska, where Trail and Boswell rented an apartment.
Both Trail and Boswell have pleaded not guilty. Both are facing the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder.
Trail’s jury trial will begin on June 17 in Wilber; Boswell’s trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 15.
