Amalia Alexander, 32, disappeared in September 2016. Her remains were found two months later in a Montgomery County field. Her then-boyfriend, Jarvis Hickerson, was charged with capital murder that December.
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"He took her body far away and left her there to rot," Laura Alexander, Amalia's sister, said. "Left her there to rot and let the animals tear her apart. Think about that."
Laura Alexander has been grappling with the cruelty of the crime for more than six years.
"I just want them to try this case," she added.
Laura was hopeful a trial date was getting closer, but Friday morning, a pre-trial conference was reset yet again. There have been almost 50 resets and four different defense attorneys since 2016. Laura is frustrated.
"It seems like my sister isn't as important. It's not a big case because she's just another person," she said facetiously.
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In the time it has taken to try high-profile defendant A.J. Armstrong twice for the murder of his parents and prepare for a third trial, following two mistrials, Hickerson has not even been tried once.
He made bond and was free until March 2021, when he was arrested for allegedly choking his new girlfriend. Since then, he's been in jail with his bond revoked.
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Hickerson's case is in the 177th District Court. According to the online criminal courts' dashboard, 25% of Judge Robert Johnson's cases are older than 361 days. That is lower than the 32% average of all 21 courts.
Still, it is not good enough either for the suspect, who hand-wrote a letter to the court in March 2022, begging to get "his case and situation resolved." It is the only thing about which he and Laura agree.
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"He took a life from me and my family," she said.
The Harris County District Attorney's Office declined to comment. Hickerson's current attorney, Loretta Muldrow, did not respond to an ABC13 request for comment. Both the prosecution and defense were in agreement on many of the dozens of resets, records show.
The latest reset pushes a trial date back six weeks to April, and Laura has a deadline of April 28.
"I'm hoping this trial can be over by her birthday so I can release her ashes in a place where she wanted to go, which is in Jamaica," Laura said. "It will be a relief. It will be like, 'OK, sister, I fought for you. I fought for you. I did my job.'"
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