SANDPOINT — A partial gag order is being imposed to ensure accused murderer Jacob Corban Coleman will receive a fair trial, court records show.

First District Judge Barbara Buchanan entered an order restricting pretrial publicity in the case earlier this month.

The order bars attorneys and law enforcement officials from making any extrajudicial statements which elaborate upon aspects of the case until the trial is completed. Those aspects include the claims against Coleman, his defense, the status of an investigation or warnings of concerning behavior, according to the April 9 order.

The prosecution, meanwhile, is prohibited from making public comments that have a substantial likelihood of heightening public condemnation of the accused, the order states.

The order does not allege that the state or the defense made any public remarks which could affect Coleman’s constitutional right to a fair trial.

Buchanan noted that the Idaho Supreme Court and the state’s rules of professional conduct recognizes preserving that right can necessarily entail the curtailment of information, particularly when a trial by jury is involved. While vital interests are served by the free dissemination of information about a matter with legal consequences and the public has a legitimate interest in such proceedings, the high court also recognizes it can be difficult to strike a balance between protecting the right to a fair trial and safeguarding the right to free expression, according to Buchanan.

“With this order, this court is attempting to strike that difficult balance by setting forth the following rules regarding all forms of extrajudicial statements about this criminal matter,” Buchanan said in the four-page order.

Coleman, a 20-year-old from Puyallup, Wash., is accused of stabbing Gagandeep Singh to death inside a minivan taxicab in Kootenai on Aug. 28, 2017. Coleman hailed a ride from Singh at Spokane Airport and intended to enroll in classes at Gonzaga University, but he was not registered as an incoming student, according to court records. An allegedly suicidal Coleman resorted to homicide as Singh drove him to Bonner County, ostensibly to meet a friend in Hope. Coleman is accused of having Singh stop at the Ponderay Walmart so he could purchase a hunting knife that investigators said was used to kill Singh.

Coleman was ordered to stand trial for the slaying of Singh, a 23-year-old Spokane Valley, Wash., resident following a preliminary hearing in magistrate court. He pleaded not guilty to a charge of first-degree murder and is scheduled to be tried in district court in the spring of 2019. He remains held at the Bonner County Jail.

The state put the defense on notice earlier this year that it is seeking the death penalty against Coleman due to the callousness of the killing. Sheriff’s investigators testified at a preliminary hearing that Coleman admitted spending an extended amount of time with Singh as he lay dying, but neither summoned or rendered aid after inflicting more than 20 stab wounds.

Coleman has since been appointed counsel with experience in defending and prosecuting death-penalty cases.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.