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LAS VEGAS (AP) -- A child abuse and neglect trial has been postponed for the mother of two girls stabbed in a 2003 attack in Mesquite.
Tamara Ann Schmidt and her husband, Robert Schmidt, had been scheduled for trial next week on charges they left the girls alone in a recreational vehicle outside the Casablanca hotel-casino.
Clark County District Judge Donald Mosley granted a request Tuesday to push the trial date to July or later after defense lawyers said they need more time to interview about 60 witnesses.
Three-year-old Kristyanna Cowan was killed and 10-year-old Brittany Bergeron was paralyzed in the January 2003 knife attack.
Utah siblings Beau and Monique Maestas are charged with murder and attempted murder in the attack, which authorities allege was in retaliation for a bogus methamphetamine deal involving the mother, then named Tamara Bergeron.
The Schmidts deny the child abuse charges and involvement in drug sales.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
