Plea may be possible in Brooke Wilberger murder case

CORVALLIS, Ore. (AP) - The Benton County prosecutor in the Brooke Wilberger murder case says he expects to know by early September whether a plea bargain could be reached with lawyers for her accused killer, Joel Courtney.

District Attorney John Haroldson told the trial judge Friday that his office had turned over tens of thousands of pages of documents Courtney's lawyers and that serious plea bargain negotiations could begin.

With no agreement, the case likely would go to trial in 2010. Wilberger, a 19-year-old Brigham Young University student, vanished on May 24, 2004, from a Corvallis apartment building parking lot. Her body has never been found, but she is presumed dead.

Prosecutors say they will seek a death sentence for Courtney.

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