A MAN accused of brutally killing his estranged wife, Rugby mother Shana Tanesia Cover, in August will not stand trial until next June.
Owen Williams was charged with murder after 34-year-old Shana’s body was found at her home in Morton Gardens on August 21.
Williams, of Grizedale, Brownsover, appeared at Warwick Crown Court on Friday for what was scheduled to be a plea and case management hearing.
But prosecutor Peter Grieves-Smith, who said 50 year-old Williams will be denying the charge and the case will have to go to trial, asked for that part of the hearing to be adjourned.
Mr Grieves-Smith explained the prosecution still had to serve mobile phone cell site analysis on the defence, together with ‘more significant footprint evidence’ from an expert who has examined footprints found at Shana’s home.
He said because of the number of experts in the case, it was expected the trial would take up to four weeks, during which the jury, who he commented ‘will be assisted by a view of the geography of the area,’ would be taken to Rugby.
Judge Richard Griffith-Jones ordered all the additional prosecution evidence should be served on the defence by mid-January, and the case should then be listed for the plea and case management hearing a month later.
On that occasion it is expected there will also be an application to extend the ‘custody time limit’ – the period a defendant can be kept in custody before standing trial.
The case was adjourned until February, and Williams was remanded in custody.
During an earlier hearing it was said Williams, who came to the UK in 1999 and returned on two successive student visas, had married Shana, who had a son, in September 2007.
Malcolm Morse, prosecuting on that occasion, said: “They had separated, and we believe she died in her flat, to which she had moved following the separation, probably on the August 14, although her body was not found until a week later.”
He added that was based on a belief that Shana’s phone had last been used by her on August 14 – and in the following week there was concern when she missed a meeting and did not turn up for her job as a cleaner at St Cross Hospital.
The police were informed, and after forcing their way into her flat they found her body. The court heard she had been
subjected to a substantial attack.
Mr Morse added Williams was arrested at the Harvester in Leicester Road, Rugby, where he worked as a chef.
