Trial set for men linked to attempted assassination of Travis County judge

The October 10th trial date that was set at federal court Thursday morning is far from being firm.  Defense attorneys and prosecutors were warned the amount of evidence that’s been collected so far may take at least six months to review- if not longer.

"The typical pace moves through the system would not provide time,” said Defense Attorney Doyle Young.

Chimene Onyeri, Marcellus Burgin and Kareem Scott are charged with Racketeering.

This federal indictment links the three to the attempted assassination of Travis County Judge Julie Kocurek in November of 2015.  But the men are not being charged with that attack, the incident is only being used to justify the federal Rico case against them.

This all began four years ago with a routine traffic stop in Rollingwood. Detective Joel Martin last year explained to FOX 7 how his investigation into Chimene Onyeri became much bigger.

"I traveled to Houston as part of the investigation and I did find there was a large group of individuals that was involved in this theft ring. The numbers are in the high hundreds of people that are involved in this ring unfortunately I was only able to identify 27 of them," said Martin.

According to court records, Onyeri was the leader of a massive identity theft ring  which was at risk of collapsing because of fallout from the Rollingwood case. Investigators say Onyeri was about to be sent to jail by Judge Kocurek for violating his probation. To prevent the Revocation Hearing from happening, the three men allegedly traveled to Austin and ambushed Kocurek as she pulled into her driveway.

To protect key witnesses, prosecutors Dana Blazey and Gregg Sofer Thursday morning asked Judge Lee Yeakel to issue a protective order. Sofer told the judge it was necessary "to keep them safe and alive."

Onyeri's attorneys, who reportedly have said their client has been framed, declined to comment about a new federal grand jury review that may bring additional charges against Onyeri. Those charges are not expected to involve the Kocurek attack. Onyeri  remains in the Travis County Jail, Burgin is in Bastrop County and Scott is being held in Caldwell County Jail.