COLUMBIA — The jury trial set to begin this month for the Boone County dog breeder accused of animal abuse has been canceled for now. The trial will be rescheduled at a later date, according to a Boone County judge.
During a pre-trial hearing on Monday, the lawyers for Melissa Sanders, 26, requested the trial be postponed, saying the defense needed more time to prepare before the five-day trial set to begin in just two weeks on Oct. 19.
Sanders appeared at the hearing virtually from the Henry County Jail.
Issac Dodd, her defense counsel hired in July, said they needed further time for background research on the case, as well as additional time to contact more witnesses and look into forensic evidence of the dogs’ bodies.
“That’s sincerely what I’m worried about here… (that) whenever we resolve this case, we reach true finality,” Dodd said. “And I don’t think we would have that in two weeks, because I know for certain I would be ineffective.”
Boone County judge Joshua Devine said the court agreed with Dodd’s concerns.
“The court has the same concerns you have,” Devine said to Dodd. “There is no benefit moving forward with a trial that then, for one reason or another, has to be redone — either due to error in the case itself or because of something that happens by way of post-conviction relief. (It’s) far better to try to get those issues hammered out, as much as they possible can, on the front end.”
Sanders is currently charged with 13 counts of animal abuse after law enforcement found dozens of dead and malnourished dogs on her property in Nov 2025. She previously owned of Magnum Opus German Shepherds, which was a dog breeding business for German Shepherds in Boone County.
At the end of Monday’s hearing, Devine said all parties would reconvene for a status hearing on Nov. 9, where he said they would hopefully pick a new trial date.
The trial was originally set to begin April 28but a judge granted the defense’s request to delay the trial to Octoberdue to a change in the indictment language.
In August, Devine originally pushed back on delaying the October trial again, saying the motion was premature at that time. The court previously expressed reluctance to move the October trial because of scheduling constraints and its trial calendar.
KOMU 8’s Zaire Breedlove and Madeline Degenhart contributed to this report.
Source: www.komu.com
