Mark Becker trial set to begin Feb. 8

(AP) - A man accused of gunning down a legendary Iowa high school football coach will go to trial Feb. 8.

Judge Stephen Carroll set the trial date for Mark Becker, 24, on Wednesday. Becker is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Aplington-Parkersburg High School football coach Ed Thomas in June.

The trial is expected to take place in Butler County District Court in Allison. Becker's public defender Susan Flander and Bill Roach, a spokesman for the Iowa attorney general's office, said they didn't expect the trial to be moved.

However, the judge said a location for jury selection would be chosen later. Flander said Thursday that was because of the large number of potential jurors who were being called.

Thomas led the Aplington-Parkersburg team for 34 seasons and was named the NFL's High School Coach of the Year in 2005. He was shot and killed June 24 in the high school weight room in front of more than 20 students.

Becker was originally scheduled for trial in September but that was delayed for a mental competency evaluation. Experts agreed that Becker, who once played for Thomas, hallucinates and suffers from paranoid schizophrenia but differed on whether he was mentally fit to stand trial.

Carroll ruled in October that Becker was competent.

Becker faces a separate, March 9 trial for eluding in Butler County.

In that case, he is accused of threatening a Cedar Falls man and damaging his garage on June 20. Authorities say Becker led police on a chase. He was arrested, admitted to a Waterloo hospital for evaluation and released June 23.

The next morning, Thomas was shot.

Becker was arrested at his parent's house shortly after the shooting and remains in the Cerro Gordo County jail in Mason City on $1 million bond.