Staff Report

A trial date in February 2022 is anticipated for Freddie Lee Smith, one of two men Austin Police Officer VonTrey Clark, 32. hired to kill his 29-year-old pregnant girlfriend, Samantha Dean, in 2015.

Dean was a victims services coordinator for the Kyle Police Department and Clark, who was the father of her unborn child, pleaded guilty to capital murder in exchange for a life sentence in December 2019.

The third man, Kevin Watson, is awaiting trial.

The delay is blamed on the coronavirus,...