Plea in Yale Murder Case Postponed Again

Updated 3:56 p.m. EDT

A Connecticut judge has rescheduled a probable cause hearing for a former Yale lab technician charged with killing a graduate student.

The delay means that - for the second time - Raymond Clark III did not enter a plea Tuesday in New Haven Superior Court.

The judge postponed the hearing so the defense could get an inventory of items taken with search warrants and forensic analyses could be completed.

Clark is next due in court Nov. 3.

He is accused of strangling 24-year-old Annie Le (LAY) in September and hiding her body behind a wall in the laboratory building where they both worked.

Police say Clark strangled the 24-year-old Annie Le and in the laboratory building where they both worked. Authorities have not released a motive. Le's body was found on what was to be her wedding day.

People charged with murder in Connecticut have the right to a probable cause hearing, in which both sides can introduce evidence and call witnesses. A judge then decides whether the case can move to trial.

Several media organizations have asked the judge to unseal an arrest affidavit that details the charge against Clark - a separate matter he was expected to address today. That ruling has also been postponed.

Le was a pharmacology graduate student who vanished Sept. 8 from a Yale medical lab building. Her body was found in the building five days later, on what was supposed to have been her wedding day.

Police have not talked about a motive in the slaying, largely because Clark has not talked to authorities. Investigators and Yale officials have called Le's death a case of workplace violence, but have not elaborated.

Co-workers have told police that Clark was controlling and viewed the laboratory and its mice as his personal fiefdom.

As a technician, Clark's duties included cleaning mouse cages and the floors of the lab.

Le's work involved experiments on mice that were part of research into enzymes that could have implications for treatment of cancer, diabetes and muscular dystrophy.

She was reported missing Sept. 8 from the medical school research building about a mile from Yale's main campus. Security cameras last recorded her entering the building that morning, and investigators were initally baffled that there was no record of her leaving.

Her body was found five days later in the basement laboratory in a wall chase - a hidden access that allows utility pipes and wires to run vertically between floors.

Investigators, who had been keeping around-the-clock survellieance of Clark, labeled him a person of interest two days later and got a court order to take forensic evidence from him and search his apartment. Clark was arrested Sept. 17 after DNA evidence linked him to Le's body.

He has been jailed since his arrest. A judge set his bond at $3 million.