BEDFORD -- The trial of Wesley Earnest, a former high school administrator charged with killing his estranged wife in Bedford County, has been delayed until March.

Earnest had been scheduled to stand trial Dec. 1, but the prosecution and defense Tuesday asked Bedford County Circuit Court Judge James Updike to postpone the trial until March 23 to give the state's forensic lab time to analyze evidence.

Updike agreed, though reluctantly. The case had initially been scheduled for July 2008 but has been delayed several times.

"This case has been pending for a long time and there needs to be a trial," Updike said. "I'm concerned that the public is concerned why this case is not being tried. I've been asked several times, 'Why is that case being continued?' "

Jocelyn Branham Earnest was found dead in her Forest home in December 2007, killed by a single gunshot wound to the head. Prosecutors contend a suicide note found next to her was fake. At the time of his wife's death, Wesley Earnest was an assistant principal at Great Bridge High School in Chesapeake. He was commuting from Smith Mountain Lake, where he lived in one of the two residences the Earnests co-owned.

The Earnests were in the midst of a divorce at the time of her death.