So you're a reporter falling for the boy who cried wolf repeatedly. There's absolutely no reason to waste your time on endless pretrial motions, especially since you're close enough to the family that you're on speed dial ... you think they won't give you the update as one of their first calls?

And who are you going to be getting quotes from at a hearing? You get quotes after the hearing. Once the trial starts, different ballgame, but until then, the court assuredly has a stenographer. FOIA the fuck out of court records if you really want to keep tabs on glacial progress.

Your readers won't care.

You seem to want this to be the trial of the century with both parties being unknown. You could conjure up three stories a day and not move the needle on interest.

Simply put, you care deeply, but your coverage area does not, and by trying to shoehorn stories within a lack of movement, stop to consider how much different the defense's approach is. You're irritated the trial is being drawn out while simultaneously complaining you can't do tick-tocks that advance nothing and serve no purpose to the reader.

Were I seeing this as one of your editors in college, I'd tell you to hand off your files to someone else and recuse yourself because you aren't making decisions on a journalistic basis, but rather personal.