Judge sets new trial date in Virginia girl’s 2016 slaying

CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. – A judge has set a new trial date for a former Virginia Tech student charged with murder in the stabbing of a 13-year-old girl.

Judge Robert Turk on Monday scheduled the trial of David Eisenhauer to begin on Feb. 5. That’s the same day co-defendant Natalie Keepers is scheduled to go on trial.

The judge has said the two would be tried separately.

It was not immediately clear why he scheduled Eisenhauer’s trial to begin on the same day as Keepers’ trial. The judge could not be reached for comment late Monday. Lawyers for Eisenhauer and Keepers did not immediately return calls seeking comment

Eisenhauer, of Columbia, Maryland, is accused of fatally stabbing 13-year-old Nicole Lovell of Blacksburg. Keepers, of Laurel, Maryland, is charged as an accessory. Both were engineering students at Virginia Tech when Lovell disappeared in January 2016.

Eisenhauer was previously scheduled to go on trial this month, but Turk granted a defence request for more time to review data from electronic devices. He set the new trial date during a court hearing Monday.

The judge also denied a defence motion to suppress statements made by Eisenhauer to other inmates.