LAS VEGAS — A forensics examination of his cellphone has pushed forward War Machine’s jury trial to February.
War Machine, aka Jonathan Koppenhaver, had been set to stand trial next week on criminal felony charges stemming from an August 2014 attack on ex-girlfriend and former porn star Christy Mack and her friend Corey Thomas.
War Machine is charged with 34 counts of attempted murder, battery and sexual assault and coercion in relation to the attack at Mack’s Las Vegas home.
The forensics examination of War Machine’s cellphone was requested by his attorney, public defender Brandon Sua, who told Clark County Judge Elissa Cadish last month that it would take defense experts two months to download data from the phone and analyze it.
A jury trial in Las Vegas is slated for Feb. 27 despite arguments from prosecutors that the state was ready to try War Machine and was opposed to any continuance. The court granted a “firm” setting for the February start after a status hearing last month.
At the hearing, prosecutors told the court that once the jury is picked, War Machine’s trial can be concluded within a week. Sua, the defense attorney, however, said that the trial would take at least three weeks.
War Machine, a former porn performer and mixed-martial-arts fighter, is already in lockup, serving up to four years on a probation revocation in a prior felony attempted battery case.
The 34-year-old War Machine could face life in prison if he’s convicted in the Mack case.
Mack suffered a broken nose, missing teeth, fractured eye socket, leg injuries and a lacerated liver, among numerous other injuries.
