A trial date was set yesterday for the man accused of murdering vagrant George Kelly in June of this year.

Gernel Leroy Darrell, 22, of Swansby Hill, Pembroke, is charged with the murder which occurred sometime between May 31 and June 1.

Darrell appeared before Chief Justice Austin Ward yesterday as part of the monthly arraignments session.

Director of Public Prosecutions, Khamisi Tokunbo asked the Chief Justice to set a fixed trial date of January 3, 2002 for Darrell which was set down but Darrell is also to appear for mention on December 3.

The body of the man he is accused of killing - George Oliver Bert Kelly - was discovered at roughly 6 a.m. on June 1 in the parking lot of the Silver Spoon restaurant in Hamilton.

The dead man was found clutching a screwdriver and was originally mistaken for a sleeping, homeless man.

When a passer-by attempted to rouse Mr. Kelly by throwing water in his face, it became apparent the man was dead. He was 43 at the time of his death.

Family members told The Royal Gazette that the dead man was a loner with a drinking problem which had worsened in the months before his death.

Mr. Kelly was unmarried with one 22-year-old son.

His violent death was the first of three murders to date this year in Bermuda. On July 21, Tekle Mallory was found dead in a pool of his own blood in the parking lot of the Paget Ice Queen.

Two men are charged with Mr. Mallory's murder - Quincy Stanley Brangman, 22, and Jahni Bean, 18.

And the badly decomposed body of American visitor Stanley Lee, 41, was found hidden in the bushes of Lagoon Park in Somerset on August 9 of this year.

Three men have since been charged with Mr. Lee's murder - Robert Blair Tucker, 33, James Allan (Spooks) Dill, 54, and Terranz Sydney (Monster) Smith, 33 - which is believed to have taken place on or around July 28.

Lee was reportedly stabbed to death.

He had entered Bermuda under a false name and Police were lead to his body while investigating another man - unrelated to the murder - for a minor crime.