One of two people charged in connection with a 2024 homicide in Bowling Green has received a trial date.

Sabah Khadim, 56, and his son, Ali Fadil, 31, both of Bowling Green appeared Monday in Warren Circuit Court for a status conference in their respective criminal cases.

They are both accused of crimes stemming from the death of Michael Scott Lee, 56, of Bowling Green, whose body was found in the early morning hours of Dec. 22, 2024, in a Jeep Cherokee on Morgantown Road.

Fadil is charged with murder, and he along with Khadim are both charged with tampering with physical evidence and abuse of a corpse.

In court on Monday, Warren Circuit Judge Chris Cohron granted a motion from Khadim’s attorney, Dwight Burton, requesting a speedy trial and scheduled Khadim’s trial to begin on May 5.

In Kentucky courts, criminal defendants who are jailed pretrial can move for a speedy trial, which if granted would require a trial to take place within 180 days of the request having been formally submitted.

Delays in a case, such as unavailable witnesses or pending forensic analysis of evidence, do not factor into the 180-day period.

Warren County Commonwealth’s Attorney Kori Beck Bumgarner said Monday that she informed Burton and Fadil’s attorney, Jason Pfeil of the Department of Public Advocacy, that four items of evidence are still to undergo testing and she would reach out to the forensic analyst evaluating the items to make them aware of Khadim’s trial date.

Pfeil said in court that he learned just before the hearing that Khadim would be requesting a speedy trial.

Fadil was ordered to return to court Feb. 9 for a pretrial conference, while a final pretrial for Khadim was scheduled for March 23.

According to prior court testimony, a passing motorist alerted authorities to a wrecked vehicle in the 11000 block of Morgantown Road on Dec. 22, 2024, and detectives with the Warren County Sheriff’s Office determined that Lee’s injuries were not consistent with a vehicle crash.

WCSO Detective Nick Jewell testified earlier this year that detectives noted trauma to Lee’s head and recovered a bloody sledgehammer from under one of the seats in the Jeep Cherokee in which Lee was located.

Law enforcement received a tip linking Fadil to Lee’s death, and further investigation enabled detectives to learn that Lee had planned to meet with someone around 10 p.m. on the night of Dec. 21, 2024.

A review of cell tower records from that time frame suggested that phones belonging to both men pinged off towers near the Anna community.

“Cell data shows phones for Mr. Fadil and Mr. Lee hitting the same cell towers within seconds (of one another),” Jewell said at a preliminary hearing that took place in Warren District Court.

Through search warrants, police established that phones belonging to Lee and Fadil pinged off the same cell towers closely in time to one another late on the night of Dec. 21, 2024, through a short time past midnight, stopping on Morgantown Road north of Bowling Green, Jewell said in court.