A Schuylkill County judge on Wednesday agreed to allow the murder case against Stanley E. Kralik to be dealt with separately from the case against another man also accused in the beating death of Corey M. Samuels two years ago.

But the severance request may be moot, Judge John E. Domalakes said, because the other man, Oliver L. Trizarri, plans to plead guilty to third-degree murder and cooperate with prosecutors.Senior Deputy Assistant District Attorney Jennifer N. Lehman and Assistant District Attorney Keith D. Hoppes said prosecutors did not oppose the severance request.Kralik, 18, of Coaldale, and Trizarri, 22, of Reading, are accused of beating Samuels, 24, to death on Jan. 20, 2014.Both men are in the county jail without bail. Both are charged with first- and third-degree murder, criminal homicide, robbery/inflicting serious bodily injury, aggravated assault, theft and conspiracy.Both attended the hearing Wednesday, but did not testify.Kralik is represented by public defender Claude A. Lord Shields.Trizarri is represented by Michael O'Pake, also a public defender.Both men pleaded not guilty in April 2015. At a preliminary hearing on March 10, 2015, Trizarri admitted to his role in Samuels' death.Kralik spent about six months trying to get the court to try him as a juvenile. Domalakes on Nov. 18, 2015, denied the request.According to an affidavit of probable cause filed by Frackville state trooper Melissa Kyper, Trizarri told Coaldale police that he, Kralik and Samuels decided to go for a walk in the woods on the night of Jan. 20, 2014, and that they had argued with Samuels, who had walked away from them. Kralik told police the same story.Police learned that no one had seen Samuels since that night, and turned the investigation over to state police on April 29, 2014.On Sept. 6, 2014, human remains, later identified as Samuels, were discovered in the wooded area off East Miner Street in Coaldale.A forensic examination revealed sharp and blunt-force trauma to the skull and a stab wound to the eye area. Samuels' death was ruled a homicide.On Jan. 11, 2015, Kyper and trooper Michael Marinchak interviewed Trizarri.He told them that about three weeks before Samuels went missing, Kralik told him that a female friend accused Samuels of sexually assaulting her. He said Kralik told him he "wanted to kill Samuels."Trizarri said he would help and the two plotted to lure Samuels into the woods, where Trizarri would hit him with a shovel, then Kralik would hold him on the ground while they killed him.But it was Kralik who hit Samuels in the head with the shovel, Trizarri told the troopers. Trizarri said he pinned Samuels to the ground, trying to suffocate him, and choked him.Once Samuels was unconscious, he hit him in the head several times with the shovel and kicked him in the groin. Then Trizarri and Kralik took Samuels' wallet, a rosary and his cellphone.They dragged Samuels' body about 20 feet off the trail and covered it with snow, and covered the blood on the trail with snow.Kralik told the troopers he and Trizarri fought with Samuels, and that he had punched Samuels in the head and that Trizarri had hit him in the head several times with the shovel.