Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly noted the date of Wesley Earnest's arrest. The story has been changed to reflect the correct date.

BEDFORD -- A Bedford County Circuit Court judge granted bond Friday afternoon to a former Chesapeake high school assistant principal who has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of his estranged wife.

A co-worker of Jocelyn Branham Earnest's found the woman dead Dec. 20 in the Forest home owned by Earnest and her husband, Wesley Earnest.

She had been shot once in the head.

Beside her body was a suicide note Bedford County law enforcement authorities say she had not written.

Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Wes Nance said during a preliminary hearing in April that the note had Wesley Earnest's fingerprints on it.

Earnest was arrested Feb. 27.

He has been held in the Blue Ridge Regional Jail since his arrest.

On a motion from defense attorney Joseph Sanzone of Lynchburg, Judge James Updike set Earnest's bond at $200,000 cash or $400,000 in real estate.

"I think it is fair," Sanzone said. "I think everybody needs time to prepare for their defense."

Under the conditions of the bond, Earnest is prohibited from leaving the state or contacting the victim's immediate family and several of her co-workers, who will testify in the case. Nance also asked that Earnest not be allowed on any property of Chesapeake Public Schools, where the defendant was employed prior to his February arrest.

Because the bond was set late Friday afternoon, Sanzone said the necessary paperwork likely would not be processed until early next week.

Earnest, 38, was indicted by a grand jury earlier this month.

The case began in the county's Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court because divorce proceedings had been under way prior to the victim's death.

Marcy Shepard, the co-worker who found Jocelyn Earnest's body, had gone to check on her after Earnest did not show up for work or respond to phone calls or text messages. During the preliminary hearing, Shepard testified that she and Jocelyn Earnest shared a romantic relationship. It is unclear whether Wesley Earnest knew of the women's relationship.

Earnest was arrested in February at the home of Shameka Wright of Rustburg. In divorce filings from 2006, Jocelyn Earnest accused her husband of having an affair with Wright.

During the preliminary hearing, Wright testified that she and Wesley Earnest had been seeing each other since 2004.

Earnest's next hearing is scheduled for July 29.