BEDFORD -- A new trial date has been set for a former assistant principal at Great Bridge High School in Chesapeake who is accused of killing his estranged wife.

Wesley Earnest is scheduled to stand trial Jan. 13 in Bedford County Circuit Court in the slaying of Jocelyn Branham Earnest, whose body was found in December at her home in Forest. A typed note next to her body implied suicide.

Earnest was initially scheduled for a jury trial in July. He's charged with first-degree murder and use of a firearm in the crime.

-- Associated Press