Blazej (BLAH'-zay) Kot appeared in Tompkins County Court on Wednesday but didn't enter a plea. Defense attorney Joseph Joch (YAWK) says he will plead not guilty at a future court appearance. The judge says a trial isn't likely until at least November.

The 24-year-old from Auckland, New Zealand, is accused of stabbing Caroline Coffey to death on a wooded trail in a state park near the couple's Ithaca apartment on June 2. Coffey, who was 28, was a postdoctoral researcher at Cornell.

Police say Kot set a fire in the apartment and was later found with serious self-inflicted cuts. He had been hospitalized in Pennsylvania.