The murder trial of Bricen Rivers, the man accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend, Lauren Johansen in July of 2024, has now been set to take place beginning in October of 2026. After being indicted in February of 2025, the original trial was set for June of 2025. However, Rivers’ trial date was delayed in order to obtain a mental health evaluation, which resulted in a rescheduling of the trial for March of 2026.
In January of 2026, a hearing was held once again on the Rivers’ case. After months of Rivers’ defense team serving multiple local media outlets with subpoenas, the team filed for a change of venue alleging that their client would not receive a fair trial from a Forrest County jury. The team researched the comments sections of social media pages for those media outlets, printed them out, submitted them to the judge and accused the local media of vilifying their client.
Judge Michael Reed granted the change of venue, and the trial was rescheduled to October. Lee County was the first choice for the transfer, but their personnel advised that the county could not accommodate their request. Instead, a jury will be selected from Grenada County, which contains similar demographics to Forrest County. The jury selection process is slated to begin on October 12.
Once the jury is selected in Grenada County, the jurors will be transported and housed in a Forrest County hotel for the remainder of the proceedings. Coverage of the trial proceedings is ongoing, and more information will be given as it is made available.
