A trial date has still not been set for defendant Martin Carl Brown, who was indicted last summer in the murder of Valerie Watts.
At the most recent status hearing, held at the Lake County Circuit Court on the morning of Monday, Jan. 14, an additional status hearing was requested and scheduled for Monday, March 4, at 9 a.m. in the court room.
Brown was indicted by a Lake County Grand Jury on Tuesday, July 31.
Brown, who had been jailed for violating his probation on a domestic violence conviction, was charged with one count of murder constituting domestic violence, two counts of abuse of a corpse in the second degree, two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm, one count of possession of a controlled substance-methamphetamine and two counts of tampering with physical evidence.
Valerie Annette Watts, aka Valerie Brown, 47, of Lakeview was reported missing to the Lake County Sheriff’s Department by her daughter on June 25. Her body was later found in a utility trailer in a remote area northwest of Lakeview on July 11, and positively identified on July 14.
More information will be updated in the Examiner as it becomes available.