LISBON — The aggravated murder trial against William P. Long Jr., who’s accused of killing his ex-wife in 2023, remains set for Tuesday morning, with a defense motion requesting reconsideration of a motion seeking truck registration data denied.

Columbiana County Common Pleas Court Judge Megan Bickerton held a motions hearing Wednesday afternoon to address the motion for reconsideration filed Tuesday and also a defense motion requesting a jury view of a route to the victim’s Carey Road home in Butler Township.

Bickerton spoke with attorneys for both sides behind closed doors, then in open court said the state had no objection to the jury view, which she is allowing. She discussed some motions the state had filed, saying some of those issues were discussed and will be decided during the course of the trial.

She denied the motion for reconsideration without comment from the bench. The defense team of Frank L. Cassese and David Betras asked the court to reconsider the ruling of Jan. 15 which denied their request for an order for the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles to provide information on how many trucks similar to the defendant’s truck were registered in a five-county area, naming several particular truck models and asking for the number of registrations for those truck models for Columbiana, Mahoning, Stark, Carroll and Jefferson counties.

In her judgment entry, Bickerton wrote that the defendant “argues the records are necessary to rebut any implication that an unidentified truck seen in video footage is the defendant’s vehicle.”

She disagreed and said “the issue presented in defendant’s motion is one for the trier of fact. The information the defendant is attempting to obtain from the BMV is not relevant. The BMV is not a party to this case.”

In the motion for reconsideration, Cassese wrote that the state planned to present evidence suggesting a pickup identified in multiple surveillance cameras belonged to the defendant.

“The surveillance footage is grainy, inconclusive, unreliable, and extremely prejudicial. Further, the footage purports to show a dark colored pickup truck with no readily identifiable features. As such the defendant has a constitutional right to educate the trier of fact as to statistical data regarding the number of similar, if not nearly identical, pickup trucks registered within the relevant geographic area. Such evidence directly challenges the inference the state seeks to draw and is therefore not only relevant, but essential to the defendant’s ability to present a complete defense,” Cassese wrote.

William P. Long Jr., 51, North Market Street, Lisbon, was charged in May 2024 with aggravated murder and murder, both unclassified felonies, along with first-degree felony discharging a firearm upon a roadway, and firearm specifications for use of a gun for each count, in the death of 50-year-old Michelle A. Long on Nov. 29, 2023 outside her Carey Road home in Butler Township. She was his ex-wife and a teacher at Leetonia High School.

He remains jailed under a $1.5 million cash or surety bond.

The state is represented by county Assistant Prosecutors Alec Beech and Jennifer Bonish.

The judge approved the defense motion for a process server to serve subpoenas to the keeper of records of the BMV and a representative of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation. After the hearing, the defense filed the paperwork for the subpoenas with the Clerk of Courts office.