OZARK — The trial of a southwest Missouri man accused of helping inject a former Macon County prosecutor with a lethal injection of cocaine has been delayed.
A judge ruled Tuesday that Thomas R. Naumann will go to trial for first-degree murder charges in April instead of this week. Naumann could face the death penalty for the 2005 slaying of David Allen Masters.
Naumann's attorneys recently declined an offer to reduce the charge to second-degree murder in exchange for a guilty plea.
Crystal D. Broyles, of Nixa, has taken the deal and was sentenced to 13 years in jail.
Investigators say Broyles and Naumann confronted Masters because he allegedly was three weeks behind on rent and had made unwanted sexual advances toward Broyles.
An autopsy found more than 40 times the lethal dose of cocaine in Masters' blood.