Danny Maurice Brown Jr. of Little Rock, accused of killing his wife in March, is scheduled to stand trial in January.
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Karen Whatley scheduled the proceeding at a Wednesday court appearance for the 38-year-old defendant who was arrested about six weeks after Edwina Martin, his wife of more than 10 years, was found shot to death in the couple's Fairlee Drive home.
Police named Brown as the suspect in her killing the following day. He is charged with capital murder and being a felon in possession of a firearm, and senior deputy prosecutor Jeanna Sherrill told the judge that she'll be seeking a life sentence for Brown, who has two children with Martin.
Brown, represented by attorney Stephen Smith, is currently jailed without bail, and Sherrill also obtained an order from the judge forbidding Brown, or anyone acting on his behalf, from contacting the couple's children. Sherrill said the two children wanted the order.
In January 2012, Martin, then 25, was shot in the chest and hip by attackers who ambushed her and her boyfriend, 22-year-old Daniel Hill, as they entered the apartment of her mother. Hill was killed protecting Martin from the attack, with the assailants arrested by the end of the month. Martin and Brown had dated for years, but she had broken up with him about three months earlier.
Authorities said Brown arranged the ambush because he and Martin had been constantly feuding over their children. He was charged alongside the other two, but prosecutors ended up dropping the case against Brown after Martin married him in August 2012 and stopped cooperating.
Questioned by police, Martin denied any involvement in the murderous attack and told police he did not know the men, Quenton Vernard "Boo" Jones, now 41, and Ivor Shawn "Slick" Gordon, 40.
Jones, identified as Hill's killer, later received a 55-year sentence after pleading guilty to first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder while Gordon, who told investigators he knew Martin, was convicted of capital murder at trial in February 2013 and received a life sentence.