ROCKVILLE, MD — The man accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend, Wilde Lake High School teacher Laura Wallen, has been granted a postponement in the proceedings. His murder trial was set to begin April 9, and a judge has reportedly granted his request to postpone it until Sept. 4.



Attorneys for Tyler Tessier, 33, of Damascus, said the mountain of evidence submitted by prosecutors was the reason for delaying the trial, to provide more time to prepare their defense, WTOP reported. Prosecutors begged to differ. They said that Tessier wanted to postpone the proceedings to give the public more time to forget about the death of the teacher, which occurred over Labor Day weekend 2017.



In a pretrial hearing on Friday, prosecutors played a call in which Tessier was recorded on a jailhouse phone telling his father that a delay in the case "looks better for me," according to WJZ. "People forget. Things happen...when something more important happens, it puts me out of the public eye," Tessier reportedly said.

Wallen, 31, was reported missing on Sept. 4, 2017, and her disappearance prompted a search that was widely publicized. Her parents joined Tessier in asking the public for help finding her at a press conference put together by the Montgomery County Police Department on Sept. 11, 2017. Her family offered a reward for information.

Police later said the decision to include Tessier in the press conference, while he was considered a person of interest, was strategic and done in concert with the family, to see what Tessier would say.

Her body was found Sept. 13, 2017, in a field near property police said Tessier had been frequenting the week after her disappearance.



Authorities said Wallen had been shot in the back of the head and charged Tessier with first-degree murder.

His attorneys say that Tessier is innocent and would never harm Wallen, according to WTOP.