A Beaverton man stands accused in a grisly 2018 murder, but his trial has been repeatedly postponed over the past two-and-a-half years.

Thomas Robert Colon has been charged in the killing of Andrew Hathaway, 28, of Milwaukie. Firefighters found Hathaway’s body while fighting a car fire in the 6200 block of North Marine Drive early on Sept. 5, 2018. A medical examiner determined the victim had been killed and put in the trunk of the car.

Prosecutors originally accused a man named Samuel Herrera of the crime, charging him in 2019 with murder, arson and mutilation of a corpse. He eventually pleaded guilty to arson, mutilation of a corpse and tampering with evidence, and prosecutors filed a murder charge against Colon, 43, who was already in prison at the time on robbery and burglary charges.

Court records don’t specify why Herrera was initially suspected of Hathaway’s murder or how Colon became the suspect.

The case against Colon in Hathaway’s homicide has stalled since he was indicted Nov. 5, 2021, for reasons that aren’t clear. The trial has been postponed three times, most recently Monday. He was transferred to the Multnomah County Detention Center Friday from the prison in anticipation of a settlement conference scheduled for the end of the month. His new trial date has been set for November, according to court records.

— Fedor Zarkhin is a breaking news and enterprise reporter with a focus on crime. Reach him at 971-373-2905; fzarkhin@oregonian.

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