A murder case involving a 2006 poisoning death in Kirkland is generating massive amounts of paperwork and other complications as it moves through the court process.

The death was of Roger Mitchell Lewis, 56, who was found dead in a Kirkland apartment in the 500 block of Sixth Avenue in October 2006.

An investigation led to first-degree murder charges being filed against Redmond resident Janjira Jeffrey Smith, then 51, and the discovery of what the charges describe as a mystery involving a poisoned liqueur and a five-year investigation ranging through several countries before she was extradited from England over the summer.

Now Smith has a scheduling hearing Sept. 7 in King County Superior Court and also has waived her right to a speedy trial, which normally would have called for her to face her accusers by December.

Instead, her attorney, Gary Davis, of the Seattle-based Associated Counsel for the Accused, has asked for extra help in handling the case and has argued that the matter has become nearly overwhelmingly complex. Davis did not respond to a request for comment, and his attempt to have a second defense attorney appointed by the court later was denied.

But in his request for help, Davis told how the death and subsequent search for Smith has come to involve thousands of documents, hundreds of contacts by investigators and possibly 24 non-law-enforcement witnesses, some of whom speak only the Thai language.

Besides that, there are 18 officers who may be called to testify, he added.”The defense has received the first installment of 900 pages of discovery, along with notice … there will be approximately several thousand pages forthcoming to be delivered in several banker boxes,” Davis said in his filings.

Davis argued that the charges “are largely circumstantial” and there are no eyewitnesses.

“The murder investigation took five years to complete and extended into Oregon, California and ultimately to Thailand,” Davis added. It’s expected to take “an extensive amount of time” to contact and interview potential witnesses, he continued, and the defense also expects to raise “specific issues” about the collection of crime-scene evidence.

Davis argued that a second attorney would be needed to “keep the case moving forward and allow the defense to be better prepared for trial and for any post-conviction motions, if necessary.”

All the legal activity concerns a tangled series of relationships that ended with the death and a poisoning in the fall of 2006.

At the time, according to charging documents, Smith and Lewis had been dating. Smith, who originally was from Thailand, learned that Lewis was planning on meeting another woman, Thanyarat O. Sengpharaghanh, who was known as “Nina.” Lewis then had returned from a trip to the Philippines and told Smith that he would be marrying a woman he met during the trip.

“Smith reportedly did not receive this news well,” a court affidavit continues.

Smith then contacted Nina and told her that Lewis liked to have a drink before going out and arranged to have a bottle of Jagermeister liqueur delivered to Nina’s apartment on Sixth Avenue.

On the night of Oct. 6, 2006, Lewis drank a full glass of the liqueur and Nina drank about a half of a glass, the charges add.

On Oct. 7, emergency crews were called after Nina was found by a friend disoriented and blind at the apartment and Lewis was found lying face down between a couch and coffee table. He was pronounced dead.

Nina was taken to Evergreen Hospital, where it was found she had suffered a stroke from a lack of oxygen. She recovered, and Smith also is charged with first-degree assault for that poisoning.

Laboratory tests found a toxic insecticide known as Methomyl inside the liqueur bottle and the two glasses used by Lewis and Nina.Kirkland detectives then interviewed Smith, who told them she and Lewis had been living together for 18 months.

When detectives later tried to find Smith again, they determined she’d flown first to Los Angeles on Oct. 12, 2006, and then to Taipei, Taiwan. She then went to Thailand and was hunted by U.S. marshals, who arrested her in London in 2008.

Extradition proceedings went on for about two years, and Smith was returned to Seattle in June. She’s being held in the King County jail in lieu of $5 million bail. She faces a sentence of life in prison if convicted.