CHICAGO, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. federal judge on Monday announced to set trial date for the man who is charged with kidnapping and killing visiting Chinese scholar Zhang Yingying, local media reported.

At a scheduling hearing in a federal courthouse of Illinois state, U.S. District Court Judge Colin Bruce set the trial for April 2, 2019. Neither the prosecutors nor the defense attorneys objected the new schedule.

28-year-old Christensen is charged with kidnapping resulting in death of visiting Chinese scholar Zhang Yingying at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) on June 9, 2017. He attended the hearing but did not speak at it.

On Jan. 19, the U.S. government filed a notice of intent on the website of the Department of Justice to seek death penalty against Christensen. After that, both sides agreed that a delay to the trial previously scheduled for Feb. 27 would be necessary.