The trial for the man accused of killing his much-older socialite wife in their Georgetown home has been indefinitely postponed, the Associated Press reported.
Albrecht Muth, 48, is charged with first-degree murder in the August 2011 beating and strangulation death of 91-year-old Viola Drath. His trial had been scheduled to begin Monday in D.C. Superior Court.
Muth has gone on hunger strikes for religious reasons and has been eating on and off since December. A doctor has said that Muth is too weak to stand or sit on his own and cannot be transported from the hospital to the courtroom.
At a court hearing on Thursday, Judge Russell Canan suggested that the trial could move forward even if Muth was not physically present. But on Tuesday, Canan decided to postpone the trial after a prosecutor and defense lawyer argued against going ahead with it, according to the AP.
