VALDOSTA — An airman from Valdosta faces court-martial in April after being accused of killing a woman in Nebraska, according to an Air Force spokesman.

A tentative trial date of April 3 has been set for Airman First Class Timothy Wilsey, 21, at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, said Delanie Stafford with the 55th Wing public affairs office at Offutt.

Wilsey is charged in connection with the death of Airman 1st Class Rhianda Dillard, said Drew Nystrom, also with the 55th Wing public affairs office. Both Dillard and Wilsey were stationed at Offutt, he said.

If convicted, Wilsey could face three years in prison for desertion and life without parole for murder.

Dillard, 20, was found dead in her dormitory room at Offutt in Nebraska Aug. 1, 2016, Nystrom said. She was a cyber systems operation specialist assigned to the 55th Strategic Communications Squadron at Offutt who arrived at the base March 14, he said. Wilsey was a member of the 55th Intelligence Support Squadron at Offutt, Nystrom said.

He was not assigned to Moody AFB.

Wilsey was apprehended Aug. 11 in a hotel in Emporia, Va., by agents of the Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations, assisted by the Greensville, Va., County Sheriff’s Office, according to a press release from the Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations. Air Force operatives had been sent to Valdosta searching for him.

At a preliminary hearing, prosecutors said they had a handwritten journal describing Dillard’s death and the handwriting matched Wilsey’s. An OSI agent testified the journal was found among Wilsey’s possessions when he was picked up in Virginia.

Journal entries reportedly described the incident in detail, suggesting the pair were sitting on her dorm room bed watching television on a laptop when he counted down three times, then placed Dillard in a headlock, sat on her and choked her to death, before leaving with some Oreos, an observer at the hearing said.

Defense representatives questioned Wilsey’s mental competency at the time of Dillard’s death. They pointed out that Wilsey’s DNA was not found under Dillard’s fingernails or on other parts of her body. They repeated requests to have another forensic psychologist and forensic pathologist involved in the case. Wilsey did not speak during the hearing.

The journal’s author said the victim was selected because he believed she had few ties to Offutt.

Terry Richards is senior reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times.