SHENANDOAH - The preliminary hearing for a Mahanoy City man charged with the April 3 slaying of another man scheduled for Thursday was again continued.
Jarvin Malik Huggins, 18, of White Owl Manor, 5 White Owl Drive, Room 17, was scheduled to appear before Magisterial District Judge Anthony J. Kilker in connection with the death of Gene M. Slavinsky but the hearing was continued.
No explanation was made available for the continuance Thursday.
Huggins will now have to appear at 10 a.m. May 17 before Kilker in his Shenandoah courtroom on charges of felony criminal homicide, burglary, robbery, aggravated assault, theft by unlawful taking and criminal trespass as well as misdemeanor offenses of theft by unlawful taking and unauthorized use of automobiles.
Magisterial District Judge David A. Plachko, Port Carbon, originally scheduled a preliminary hearing for Huggins for April 16 at his arraignment two days after the slaying, but that hearing was continued until Thursday.
Plachko was on call at the time of Huggins' arrest while Kilker will oversee the preliminary hearing because the crime occurred in his jurisdiction.
Huggins was charged by state police at Frackville with the beating death of Slavinsky, 48, in his 408 W. Centre St. home.
Borough police officers found Slavinsky's body two days later in the basement with severe head injuries.
An autopsy determined Slavinsky died of blunt force head trauma and Schuylkill County Coroner Dr. David Moylan ruled the death a homicide.
Within 24 hours after the body was found, Huggins was arrested after he crawled through a window at White Owl Manor and tried to flee on foot.
While being interviewed at the state police station in Frackville, Huggins confessed to the crime, said Trooper Edward Lizewski, the investigating officer.
Huggins said that he went to the home about 9 a.m. April 3, entered through a basement access door on the front porch and proceeded to the electrical panel box where he turned the power to the home off and back on to get the man's attention.
As Slavinsky entered the basement, Huggins told police he stood under the cellar stairs, picked up the weight and waited.
Lizewski said Huggins told him Slavinsky looked in his direction and that he struck him in the head when he knew he had been seen.
The trooper said that as Slavinsky began to fall forward, Huggins said he struck him about five more times in the head and then went to the first floor of the home, where he stole the laptop, a jar of rolled coins and a Washington Redskins key rope with numerous keys.
Lizewski said Huggins also admitted that he then took Slavinsky's car, drove to White Owl Manor where he dropped off the stolen items and then returned the vehicle.
Huggins then said he took the coins to a store in Mahanoy City and that the jar was still in his room, where it was later recovered, Lizewski said.
Huggins has been held in the Schuylkill County Prison without bail since his arraignment.