After months of delays, Dahnte Cegers pleads not guilty to charge of helping brother flee after downtown Bend killing

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – After a half-dozen postponements over several months, Dahnte Cegers pleaded not guilty Monday to hindering younger brother Caleb’s prosecution when the pair fled to Tennessee after last summer’s fatal shooting of Taylor Wyss outside a downtown Bend bar.

Cegers, 26, stood beside defense attorney Sara Gross, who entered the plea on his behalf to the single Class C felony charge during a brief hearing before Deschutes County Circuit Judge Alycia Sykora.

Sykora set a four-day, 12-person jury trial for next Jan. 28 and a trial readiness hearing for a week earlier. The judge also kept in place the previous release conditions for Cegers.

Meanwhile, Caleb Cegers, 20, is currently scheduled for a 10-day jury trial next Jan. 7 on felony charges of second-degree murder, first-degree assault and two counts of unlawful use of a weapon in the killing of Wyss, 33, of Redmond, last August outside Duda’s Billiard Bar on Wall Street.  

Family and friends of Wyss have attended each hearing, expressing frustration at the delays in the case.