PHOENIX (AZFamily) — The trial for the man accused of killing Lauren Heike on a north Phoenix hiking trail in 2022 has been pushed back.
Maricopa County Superior Court officials confirmed to Arizona’s Family that the trial for 24-year-old Zion Teasley, which was originally scheduled to begin in October, has been delayed until Jan. 4, 2027. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in the case.
Heike’s murder brought international attention after the 29-year-old was found stabbed more than a dozen times on a Reach 11 trail near the border of Phoenix and Scottsdale, not far from her apartment. Investigators say the two did not know each other and that the attack was random and without provocation.
Earlier this year, a grand jury indicted Teasley on 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. The indictment listed that he had sexually explicit images involving a child under 15 years old and possibly shared them between March 8, 2019, and July 4, 2020…