URBANA, Ill. (AP) — Video of the trial of a former University of Illinois student accused of killing a Chinese scholar will be streamed from a federal courthouse to a viewing room near campus.
The (Champaign) News-Gazette reports U.S. District Judge James Shadid on Tuesday approved the request “to accommodate members of the public and the victim’s family.”
The closed-circuit video will stream from the trial in Peoria to a viewing room at the Urbana courthouse, about 90 miles (144 kilometers) away.
Brendt Christensen’s trial is scheduled to begin June 3. He is accused of luring Yingying Zhang into his car before torturing and killing her in June 2017. Her body hasn’t been found.
Her family’s Urbana-based attorney, Steve Beckett, says the family is planning to return to Illinois from China for the trial.