Nassau County Judge James Daniel on Thursday set Aug. 16 for Kimberly Kessler’s trial in the 2018 murder of Joleen Cummings.
Kessler did not participate in Thursday’s hearing. But as Daniel was telling everyone via Zoom that she would be watching from jail without audio, Kessler yelled, and then her audio was cut off.
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The judge set an all-day motion hearing for March 19, and the judge prefers that to be virtual.
The defense has so far filed nine motions to suppress evidence in the case, and Kessler’s lawyer said during the hearing that there were three more in the works.
The next hearing will be March 4.
Kessler is charged with killing Cummings, her coworker at a Yulee hair salon. Cummings’ body was never found, but the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office and Florida Department of Law Enforcement found evidence that blood at the salon was cleaned up and blood was found on some of Kessler’s clothing. With the help of the FBI, items of interest in the case were found in the Georgia landfill where Nassau County’s trash is taken, but details of what was found were never provided.
Kessler, who has been going on episodes of starvation and binge eating, was just 74 pounds when she appeared before the judge in October. The judge found Kessler’s behavior was not driven by mental illness but a personality disorder.