Trial pending in Carlson slaying

SANDPOINT — A man accused of killing a former Bonner County resident in California is scheduled to go on trial later this month.

Jason Ross Gilley is charged with first-degree murder, rape and kidnapping in connection with the death of Dalene Carlson, who disappeared in Stockton in August 2011.

Gilley’s jury trial is set to start on Aug. 20 in San Joaquin County Superior Court, online court documents show.

Carlson, 23, was last seen leaving a Stockton pub with the 27-year-old Gilley. Her remains were discovered in a cornfield in Escalon, Calif., about two months after her disappearance.

Gilley, according to published media accounts, became a suspect after giving inconsistent statements to investigators about his whereabouts leading up to Carlson’s disappearance.

Gilley was ordered to stand trial for Carlson’s slaying last year.

Prosecutors said there was video surveillance from a bar and a grocery store that showed the two were together on the last day she was seen. Moreover, bullet casings found at the crime scene matched those fired from an antique pistol that Gilley had, The Stockton Record reported.

Authorities are not seeking the death penalty against Gilley.

Gilley is being held without bail at the San Joaquin Jail in French Camp, Calif., according to the sheriff’s office.