Molly Martens and her father Tom are not expected to face a retrial over the death of Irishman Jason Corbett until at least the autumn.
The pair were convicted of second-degree murder in 2015 but successfully appealed and that decision was further upheld by the North Carolina Supreme Court which ordered a retrial.
Davidson County District Attorney Garry Frank said legal teams will meet before a judge in March to determine how far they are from a new hearing date.
But he said it could be a “considerable time” yet as there is a massive backlog of cases for hearing due to delays caused by the pandemic.
He told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “We have an administrative hearing soon in which the judge will probably set some time lines for pre-trial matters and with the hopes of setting a new trial date.
“It will be to review where we are all at and what pre-trial matters have to be taken care of and to set a timeline for getting to a trial.”
Expectations are mounting the retrial will open in the autumn, but Mr Frank said he could not speculate.
The top US attorney, who prosecuted the case against former beauty queen Martens and her ex-FBI father Tom, said: “I wouldn’t want to guess with the backlog and schedules. We have got a special judge who has been assigned to the case and is going to handle it from the get go. We will know more when he gives us some guidance.
“It’s a brand new trial, it’s just like the first trial never happened.”
Limerick dad-of-two Jason Corbett was found bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat and a concrete slab in his upmarket home in Walburg, North Carolina on August 2, 2015.
His wife Molly, formerly his nanny, claimed they killed him in self-defence but were convicted of murder in 2017.
It is believed that the second murder trial may hinge on who the jury believe to have been the abuser and who was the abused in the marriage.
In May 2016, Jason’s son Jack told the Davidson County District Attorney’s Office Molly had coerced him and sister Sarah into making earlier statements about domestic abuse.
He said they were false and it was Molly who had been abusive both to their father and to him.
The retrial will now admit those initial interviews as evidence – and they could be pivotal to the outcome. Jack, 17, and Sarah, 15, told police they will give evidence at the retrial.
They have returned to Ireland under the care of their aunt Treacy, and the family have called for a retrial at the earliest date.
Asked if there might be new evidence presented, Mr Frank said: “There’s always possibilities of things developing or not developing, which is pure speculation at this point.”
