By Jared Fields, Editor in Chief

Brandon Dale Woodruff, a former ACU student charged with killing his parents in 2005, still awaits his jury trial and is held on a $1 million bond.

Woodruff, 21, had a trial date set for Oct. 31 of this year, but has had it delayed when the Hunt County District Attorney’s Office asked a state district judge to be recused, for the judge to be taken off the case, according to the Rockwall County News.

No trial date is set, and a gag order is placed on all parties involved with the case, including the judge, the prosecuting and defense teams, people answering phones at the county and district court house, Woodruff and his former ACU roommate, Eric Gentry. The gag order restricts those involved from speaking to outside parties about the trial.

The request for a recusal came after State District Judge Richard Beacom Jr. ruled that prosecutors recorded phone calls between Woodruff and his attorney while in jail, violating his Constitutional rights.

According to the Rockwall County News, Beacom recused the Hunt County Prosecutor’s Office on Oct. 10 from trying the case, and instead would ask for a special prosecutor from the Texas Attorney General. Beacom’s decision also means the prosecutors cannot use any evidence obtained through the recorded phone calls. However, the Rockwall County News reported that prosecutors claimed they learned nothing from the calls.

According to original Optimist reports, Woodruff became a suspect when a family friend found Dennis, 43, and Norma Woodruff, 42, dead in their mobile home near Royse City on Oct. 18, 2005, two days after being killed. At the time, chief deputy Robert White of the Hunt County Sheriff’s Department, said the bodies were shot and stabbed several times, and the doors to the house were locked. No sign of a forced entry was found.

While at ACU, Woodruff was an agribusiness major and enrolled as a part-time freshman.