CADIZ — A 48-year-old man charged with the murder of a Bellaire woman appeared in court for a pretrial hearing Tuesday morning.

Samuel Farnsworth of 451 N. Main St., Cadiz, appeared before Judge T. Shawn Hervey in Harrison County Common Pleas Court. He made the appearance via video conference to answer charges of murder and abuse of a corpse.

In April, Farnsworth was arresred for the murder of 40-year-old Sherry Lynn Shrieve, whose body was disovered in early March alongside a rural road outside of New Athens about 1 mile from the Belmont/Harrison county line. Shrieve had been shot to death, according to officials.

Farnsworth pleaded innocent to the charges in July.

During Tuesday’s pretrial hearing, Farnsworth’s attorney, Anthony Pincola, said the defense was still awaiting the bill of particulars for the case — a detailed article of the defendant’s charges — from the prosecution.

Assistant Prosecutor Jeff Bruzzese said the state would need additional time to submit the article due to the office’s current caseload.

“We do have to ask the court for some additional time in order to review the bill of particulars. As the court knows, there are currently two murder cases pending. Both of these cases involve evidence from multiple different agencies, districts, state agencies, local agencies. There’s a lot to sort through in order to make sure we have a thorough and complete bill of particulars,” he said.

The prosecutor’s office also is working on a second murder case in the county. Larry Smith, 63, of Hopedale is charged with homicide and tampering with evidence for the murder of 37-year-old Lorie Storie of Zanesville, Ohio. Storie’s body was discovered in February near the dam area of Tappan Lake.

Hervey set another pretrial hearing for Farnsworth’s case for Oct. 13.

“The particulars are due one day before that,” he said.

Hervey said he also will set a date for a jury trial at that time.

“In the meantime, besides setting another pretrial, I’m going to set a jury trial so that we know when we’ve got to get back in court and get this done,” he said.

Farnsworth is being held at the Jefferson County Jail in lieu of $2 million bond in the homicide case.