Trial set in slaying of 9-year-old girl

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) - Prosecutors and attorneys for a Fort Wayne man accused of bludgeoning a 9-year-old girl to death and dismembering her body three days before Christmas have told an judge they're ready to go to trial next month.

The News-Sentinel reports ( http://bit.ly/JEdxUG ) the attorneys said during a brief pretrial conference Tuesday morning in an Allen County court that they're ready to proceed.

Thirty-nine-year old Michael Plumadore is charged with murder, abuse of a corpse and removing a dead body from the scene in the December death of Aliahna Maroney-Lemmon. Authorities say Plumadore fatally beat Aliahna with a brick. Plumadore was a family friend who was caring for the third-grader because her mother was sick

The trial is scheduled to begin on June 18.