Twenty-three-year-old Antonio Rodriguez remains in prison without bail on three counts of murder. Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Minehart scheduled the nonjury trial to begin Aug. 13.
Attorneys for both sides have been examining whether the case against Rodriguez, who has a history of mental illness, was appropriate for the death penalty. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that executing the mentally retarded is unconstitutional.
Police say DNA evidence links Rodriguez with the strangling deaths that gripped the city's Kensington neighborhood in November and December of 2010.
The victims, Elaine Goldberg, Nicole Piacentini and Casey Mahoney, have been described as struggling with addiction and sometimes working as prostitutes.
