PORT ANGELES — A Sequim man accused of beating a Joyce woman to death with a carjack will get a new trial date April 17.
Ari Lee King, 42, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Diane Cunningham, 65.
The trial is scheduled for May 4, but attorneys said at a March 20 status hearing that they were still awaiting lab reports on DNA and fingerprint evidence and would need to reset the date.
A trial reset hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. April 17 in Clallam County Superior Court.
Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Troberg was not immediately available for comment Thursday.
Still in jail
King remained in the Clallam County jail Thursday on $1 million bail.
Cunningham was last seen accompanied by King on surveillance footage from 7 Cedars Casino and the Port Angeles Walmart in the early morning hours of Sept. 28.
Her body was found in the bedroom of her home in the Salt Creek RV Park near Joyce on Oct. 6.
An autopsy showed that Cunningham died of blunt force trauma to the head.
A lock box containing Cunningham’s coin collection and $1,700 in cash was missing from the home, court papers said.
King was seen driving alone in Cunningham’s 1999 Audi on a state ferry Sept. 28.
Found in Oregon
The abandoned vehicle was later discovered in a remote area outside of Juntura, Ore.
Two Clallam County sheriff’s deputies searched the eastern Oregon town for clues and arrested King in Malheur County, Ore., on Nov. 13.
King had been living under a bridge with his dog, Bubba.
He was transported by the deputies nearly 600 miles to the Clallam County jail.
King’s family told authorities they would retrieve the pit bull-German shepherd mix from a Malheur County pound.
