ELKTON — A 10-day jury trial is scheduled to start in April for a man charged with first-degree murder and other offenses after he allegedly strangled to death the mother of their four children inside a Cecilton home in June and then told investigators that she had committed suicide by hanging herself.
The murder trial for Jason Timothy Simpson, 27, of Elkton, is set to begin on April 19 and is scheduled to run through April 30, a calendaring decision made Monday during a motions hearing in which the defense waived its right to speedy trial.
Known as the Hicks Rule, a defendant has a constitutional right to be tried within 180 days after his first court appearance in the wake of the filing of charges against him. For Simpson, that deadline falls on March 15. But Simpson’s defense lawyer, William F. Riddle, will not have a clear calendar to accommodate the expected two-week-long trial until April…