More than seven years after Byron Young Nettles was stabbed to death outside the Pasadena supportive housing building he managed, the murder case against the man charged in his killing returned to a courtroom on Thursday, Aug. 6.

Telly R. Johnson, who was 41 at the time of his arrest and lives in Los Angeles, was scheduled for a pretrial hearing at 8:30 a.m. in Department F of the Pasadena Courthouse, 300 East Walnut St., according to PasadenaNow. Johnson has pleaded not guilty to murder and to an allegation that he used a knife. His bail was set at $2 million.

The case has moved slowly.

Johnson was charged on March 6, 2019, entered his plea a week later and was ordered to stand trial in July 2020. Yet more than six years after that ruling, the case remains in pretrial proceedings. No trial date has been announced.

The killing

Pasadena Police Department officers responded to the 100 block of South Euclid Avenue at about 9:05 a.m. on Friday, March 1, 2019. They found Nettles, 52, with stab wounds. Pasadena Fire Department paramedics transported him to a hospital in critical condition. He underwent surgery but died at 3:52 p.m. from stab wounds to the chest, the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner determined.

Nettles managed Euclid Villa, a 14-unit permanent supportive housing property for families at 154 S. Euclid Ave. that Union Station Homeless Services established in 1997. He also lived in the building, according to the Pasadena Police Department.

"He was just so helpful to everybody," his wife, T-Shawn Demethris, told KCAL9 shortly after his death in March 2019.

Manhunt and arrest

The attacker fled on foot. Officers set a perimeter and searched block by block with helicopters and police dogs in an area bounded by Green Street, California Boulevard, Los Robles Avenue and Marengo Avenue. Mayfield Junior School, at 405 S. Euclid Ave., went into lockdown, and neighbors were told to shelter in place until about 2:30 p.m.

The Pasadena Police Department said in a 2019 news release that its preliminary investigation suggested the incident was not random. At the department's request, the U.S. Marshal's Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force surveilled a location in Los Angeles. Johnson was taken into custody without incident at about 9:26 p.m. that same day in the 1900 block of Cordova Street and booked for murder at the Pasadena City Jail.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office is prosecuting the case. Johnson is presumed innocent unless proved guilty.

Anyone with information about the case can call Pasadena police at (626) 744-6477. Anonymous tips can be directed to Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-8477 or lacrimestoppers.org.