Eric Matthew Frein will go to trial in eight months.

In an order dated Thursday, Pike County Judge Gregory Chelak placed the 33-year-old accused cop killer on the March 2017 trial term of court, but did not set a specific date for jury selection.

Also in the order, the judge approved a previously reached agreement between Mr. Frein's defense team and county District Attorney Ray Tonkin to have an out-of-county jury hear Mr. Frein's case.

"I think the judge did the right thing," said attorney Bill Ruzzo, one of Mr. Frein's attorneys. "I think the DA was very professional to not insist on a jury from Pike County, which would have been to his advantage."

With the death penalty at stake, the case against Mr. Frein, of Canadensis, has been moving through the courts since his October 2014, arrest for the September 2014 ambush at the Blooming Grove state police barracks, where Cpl. Bryon K. Dickson II died and Trooper Alex Douglass was wounded. Mr. Frein led federal, state and local authorities on a 48-day manhunt until his capture at an abandoned airport hangar in Monroe County.

In approving an outside jury, the court settled one of the larger pre-trial motions in the case. Still looming are a defense motion to suppress statements Mr. Frein made immediately after his arrest and the prosecution's motion to preclude Mr. Frein's attorneys from using an insanity defense.

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jkohut@timesshamrock.com, @jkohutTT on Twitter.