A trial date has been set for Joel Courtney, the man charged with the 2004 kidnapping and murder of 19-year-old Brooke Wilberger.

During a brief hearing on Friday, Benton County Circuit Court Judge Locke Williams set Feb. 1, 2010, as the start date for Courtney’s trial. The date is mainly a placeholder for the court because the trial is expected to be lengthy.

“If the case does go to trial, we would need to have a significant scheduling window,” District Attorney John Haroldson told Williams in court.

Courtney, through his attorneys, waived his right to appear at both the Friday hearing and the next scheduling hearing, which is set for July 25 at 10 a.m. Williams approved the waiver.

After Friday’s hearing, lead defense attorney Steven Krasik said there is no need for Courtney to be transported between the jail and the courthouse for the minor hearings.

Krasik’s co-counsel, Steven Gorham, was also present at the hearing.

District Attorney John Haroldson is seeking the death penalty for Courtney, who faces 14 counts of aggravated murder, two counts of kidnapping and single counts of rape, sodomy and sexual abuse in connection with Wilberger’s disappearance in May 2004.

Wilberger is presumed dead, although her body has never been found.

A Brigham Young University student from Veneta, Wilberger was in Corvallis for her summer vacation. She was helping her sister and brother-in-law clean up the apartment complex they managed near the Oregon State University campus.

She disappeared while cleaning light fixtures outside the apartment complex. Police found only her flip-flop sandals in the parking lot.

Haroldson has also charged Courtney with the attempted kidnapping, attempted rape, attempted sodomy, attempted sexual abuse and attempted murder of two female OSU students who said they were approached by a man fitting Courtney’s description on the same day as Wilberger’s disappearance.

On April 8, Courtney was extradited to Oregon from a New Mexico state prison near Santa Fe, where he had been held since his Dec. 11, 2007, sentencing to 18 years for kidnapping, sodomy and rape of an exchange student at the University of New Mexico.

He remains in the Benton County Jail, where he awaits court proceedings in relation to the Wilberger case.