SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) _ A northern Indiana man charged with murder in the 1988 shooting death of a 16-year-old girl is scheduled to go on trial in December.

A St. Joseph County judge on Tuesday set a Dec. 8 trial date for 44-year-old Phillip Geans of Mishawaka. Geans was charged last December in the shooting death of Mishawaka (mish-ah-WAH'-kuh) High School sophomore Theresa Burns.

Geans was 18 when Burns was shot in her home after leaving school. Police say Geans and Burns knew each other through friends.

Court documents says Geans had spoken with a number of people about Burns' death in the quarter-century since she was killed, including twice telling individuals he should kill them “just like he killed Theresa Burns.''