BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Anticipation for the sentencing hearing of the couple accused of killing adopted sons Orrin and Orson has been building for months, both to see punishment imposed and to learn whether prosecutors will retry the Wests on the charges on which a jury deadlocked.

But audience members who filed into court Wednesday will have to wait at least a couple more weeks.

Sentencing was postponed to later this month to give the attorneys representing Trezell and Jacqueline West time to present the court with additional, unspecified information. Prosecutor Eric Smith had no objection.

On Sept. 28, Judge Charles R. Brehmer will decide whether the new information requires the sentencing to be postponed even further. There has been one prior postponement.

After a weekslong trial, jurors in May found Trezell West, 36, and Jacqueline West, 33, guilty of second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and child cruelty regarding the death of Orrin, 4, but failed to reach verdicts on second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in connection with 3-year-old Orson’s death. A guilty verdict for child cruelty was returned regarding Orson.

Second-degree murder carries a prison term of 15 years to life. The couple was also convicted of falsely reporting an emergency.

The prosecution can retry the Wests on the murder and conspiracy charges filed in Orson’s death, but has not made its decision public.

The Wests reported Orrin and Orson missing from their California City home on Dec. 21, 2020, leading to massive searches and intense media coverage. Months passed without the children being found or arrests made in their disappearance.

Their bodies still have not been located.

In March of last year, the Wests were taken into custody and the District Attorney’s office announced evidence indicated the boys died three months before they were reported missing, while the family was still living at an apartment in Bakersfield.

Prosecutor Eric Smith has said the Wests — who had six children, two biological and four adopted — were abusive to the adopted ones. In September 2020, Orrin died, and the Wests came up with a plan to kill Orson and dispose of the bodies, Smith said.

Defense counsel has argued the boys were kidnapped and said the investigation by California City police, which handled the case before turning it over to the Bakersfield Police Department, failed to conduct a thorough inquiry into sex offenders living in the area or the boys’ biological family.

At trial, perhaps the most significant testimony came from the Wests’ eldest child, 10 at the time of the boys’ disappearance. He testified he saw Orrin dead, and that his parents told him if he told anyone he and the other children would be taken away. A week later, they moved to California City, according to the boy.

Orson disappeared soon after, he said.