SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A Sioux City man accused of helping to kill a Nebraska man has been given another starting date for his murder trial.

Thirty-year-old Daniel Levering has pleaded not guilty to the July 23 slaying of 36-year-old Vincent Walker, who lived in Winnebago, Nebraska.

The new date: July 17 in Woodbury County District Court. His other starting dates: Oct. 17, Jan. 23, March 20 and April 17.

Police say Walker was washing his car when he was confronted by three people. Police say the group then assaulted him, with one stabbing him and another hitting him repeatedly with a baseball bat. Walker later died at a Sioux City hospital.

Authorities have not reported the arrests of the two other suspects.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska judge has rejected a former Creighton University student’s argument that his fraternity hazed him into a state of intoxication so severe that he unwittingly slashed a woman’s neck.

While hazing by Phi Kappa Psi may have been a part of the February 2017 attack, Christopher Wheeler took many steps on his own that contributed to his level of intoxication, such as illegally purchasing vodka and smoking marijuana, Douglas County District Judge Shelly Stratman said.

“Permitting an involuntary intoxication defense in the context of fraternity hazing would open the floodgates to similar defenses by criminal defendants simply because they were pressured into conformity,” Stratman wrote.

The 20-year-old also failed to provide evidence that he would’ve been physically harmed if he hadn’t participated in the activities, she said.

“A fear of being ostracized by Phi Kappa Psi is insufficient” to claim involuntary actions, Stratman wrote.

Wheeler’s friends have said that he was behaving strangely when he returned from a party at the fraternity. Wheeler entered the dorm room of a 19-year-old student he didn’t know and swiped at her neck with a pocketknife, scarring the woman but not seriously injuring her, according to court records.

Wheeler is charged with second-degree assault and weapon use and is due to stand trial next month. He rejected a plea bargain that would’ve dismissed the weapons count if he pleaded guilty to the assault charge.

Wheeler’s attorney, Steve Lefler, sought to put the fraternity on trial. He also alleged that fraternity members may have tampered with the bong Wheeler was smoking from by slipping in hallucinogens. However, tests on the bong revealed no substances besides marijuana and three other fraternity brothers who used it reported no unusual effects, Stratman said.

Fraternity officials have denied any wrongdoing. Creighton investigated and suspended the fraternity following Wheeler’s arrest.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — A former Grand Island police officer is scheduled to be sentenced May 4 after making a plea deal with prosecutors on an assault charge.

Court records say 31-year-old Michael Lyon pleaded no contest Thursday in Hall County Court to attempted misdemeanor assault after prosecutors lowered the charge from misdemeanor assault.

Police have said Lyon assaulted the woman the night of Oct. 30 in a Grand Island residence. Police say the assault was not “a domestic offense.”

Lyon has since left the department.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a Nebraska state trooper and a motorist have been injured in a collision on Interstate 680 in Omaha.

Both vehicles were headed north when they collided around 1:40 a.m. Tuesday.

Both drivers were taken to a hospital. Their names haven’t been released.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A former Omaha elementary teacher accused of selling methamphetamine has been sentenced to five years of probation.

Court records say 38-year-old Jesse Stull was sentenced Monday in Douglas County Court. He’d pleaded guilty to attempted sale of the drug after prosecutors lowered the charge.

Stull also must complete 10 hours of community service. He’d been a physical education teacher at Highland Elementary School.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say one man was fatally wounded and another injured by someone in northeast Omaha.

Officers were sent to the scene around 3:20 a.m. Monday. Both men were taken to Nebraska Medical Center, where one died. Their names haven’t been released.

No arrests have been reported.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a 16-year-old boy injured in a Sioux City apartment fire has died at a Nebraska burn center.

Sioux City police say in a news release that Misael Gonzales Velasquez died at Saint Elizabeth Regional Burn and Wound Center in Lincoln around 3 a.m. Monday. He was flown there Sunday after initial treatment at a Sioux City hospital.

Firetrucks were sent to the building around 3:40 a.m. Sunday, and firefighters say the flames filled an upstairs apartment where they found the boy.

The fire cause is being investigated. Authorities say the blaze displaced 13 building occupants.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A defense attorney says only one Nebraska county requires someone to appear before a judge to be released from jail after paying bond.

Kenneth Buckingham had to wait two days and had to appear before a judge in Lancaster County after his fiancee paid his bail to be released from jail.

State law allows a judge to require the sheriff or jailer to bring an accused person to the courthouse before the person bonds out of jail.

While the extra step makes it easier to convict defendants who fail to appear in court, other counties require defendants to sign an appearance bond at the jail to ensure they’ll return to court, said Tim Noerrlinger, Buckingham’s defense attorney.

“No one else does it that way,” Noerrlinger of Lancaster County. “From Norfolk on down and Grand Island on out. It’s atypical.”

The additional time in jail, the transportation to and from court and attorneys’ fees end up costing taxpayers.

“They just paid me to sit there 20 minutes,” Noerrlinger said after a recent court appearance.

Some believe appearing before a judge is more effective, said retired Lancaster County District Judge Jeffre Cheuvront.

“I think there was a feeling that if you were brought into court and you were in front of a judge and you swore to the bond, it may have more of an effect on the person than if you just did it in the jail,” he said.

Judges typically try to fit in bond-swear hearings as soon as possible, but it can be difficult with their busy schedules, said Lancaster County Public Defender Joe Nigro.

“From our perspective, we would prefer if people could post bond at the jail,” he said. “The whole process is cumbersome.”

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Douglas County prosecutor Don Kleine says he plans to appeal the sentence of retired Omaha fire captain found guilty earlier this year of sexually assaulting three young girls, saying he thinks the man got off too easy.

Lee Dunbar was sentenced Friday to 15-16 years on each of all five counts of first-degree child sexual assault for assaults on girls all younger than 12. The victims included two foster children of Dunbar’s. The judge ordered the sentences served at the same time.

The Omaha World-Herald reports that Kleine said Friday that by ordering the sentences served concurrently, the judge effectively wiped out four of the convictions.

Dunbar had faced up to life in prison.