Sept. 19 do-over trial set in La Salle County bow and arrow killing

A Varna man will stand for murder for the second time Sept. 19 in the 2015 bow-and-arrow killing of an Ottawa man.

Bradley M. French, 28, appeared Friday for a status hearing and left with a trial setting on a first-degree murder charge for the killing of Joshua Scaman, of Ottawa. Scaman died after being struck with a hunting arrow in a remote parking lot at Illinois Valley Community College.

Peoria attorney Maureen Williams, who entered her appearance in October, also asked Chief Judge H. Chris Ryan Jr. for a June 10 status hearing. The judge so agreed.

French was convicted and sentenced to 30 years after his first murder trial; but an appeals court threw out his conviction and sentence on the grounds French should have been allowed to argue self-defense, even if that argument isn’t viable.

French remains held in La Salle County Jail on $2 million bond.