The trial of a man accused of killing a Hot Springs Village police dispatcher has been postponed until July 7, but that date is up for review at a hearing set for Monday.
Kevin Duck is charged in the 2011 death of his girlfriend, Dawna Natzke. Duck was scheduled to go to trial Feb. 9, but the case was continued to give the defense time to analyze an FBI report showing the triangulation of cellphone calls.
The report was not released to the defense until the first week of February, even though the prosecution has had it for about a year. An FBI analyst did not have time to review the data any sooner because of work overload, the prosecution said.
In February, 18th Judicial Circuit Judge John Homer Wright denied the defense's motion to exclude FBI Special Agent William Shute from testifying about the report and the cellphone call locations. Instead, Wright granted a defense motion for the state to pay for an expert witness to dispute the FBI report and postponed the trial date.
Garland County prosecutor Terri Harris said Friday that the judge will review the new trial date at Monday's review hearing to see if the date needs to be changed. The judge will also hear an update from the defense on whether it has hired an expert to rebut the telephone report, Harris added.
A call to Duck's defense attorney, Clay Janske, was not immediately returned Friday.
Natzke, 46, was last seen with Duck at a Christmas party in Hot Springs Village on Dec. 21, 2011.
Around 11 a.m. Dec. 22, a U.S. Forest Service employee found Natzke's burned car on Harley Lane, off Arkansas 298, outside Hot Springs Village. At 9:02 a.m. Dec. 22, a call was made from Duck's phone that originated six-tenths of a mile from where Natzke's car was found, the triangulation records said.
Volunteer searchers found Natzke's body 10 days after she disappeared. An autopsy showed that she died from drowning and blunt-force trauma.
State Desk on 02/28/2015