Marine veteran Michael Brown, who deserted his post in late 2019 before allegedly shooting and killing his mother’s boyfriend, Rodney Brown, has a new trial target date of March 2022.

Former U.S. Marine Michael Alexander Brown, 23, who had been a corporal at 8th Engineer Support Battalion at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, previously pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, larceny, burglary, and the use of a firearm in a felony offense.

The Confrontation

Following his Oct. 24, 2019 disappearance from his home base at Camp Lejeune, N.C., prosecutors believe that Michael Brown responded to his mother’s boyfriend’s home in Franklin County, Virginia. Once there, police say that Brown confronted his mother’s boyfriend, Rodney Wilfred Brown, 54.

According to an article by the Marine Corps Times, Michael’s mother, Vanessa Hanson, testified “that the pair [M. Brown and R. Brown] were talking outside the front entrance while she watched television inside. She stated she heard a ‘loud, cracking’ sound and went outside to find the elder Brown on the ground and her son holding both a rifle and a pistol with a suppressor.”