Suspect in slaying pleads not guilty to sex charge

? The man who faces capital murder charges in the abduction, rape and strangulation death of 18-year-old Kelsey Smith pleaded not guilty Wednesday to separate charges of having sex with a 14-year-old runaway.

Edwin R. Hall, 26, is charged with two counts of aggravated indecent liberties for allegedly having sexual intercourse with the girl in July 2004. A judge on Wednesday determined there was enough evidence for the case to go to trial, and Hall entered the not guilty plea.

No trial date was set, but a hearing was scheduled for Oct. 19.

Hall also has pleaded not guilty to charges of capital murder, kidnapping, rape and aggravated sodomy in the slaying of Smith, of Overland Park. He is accused of abducting Smith on June 2 from a Target parking lot in suburban Kansas City. Grainy surveillance video from the store appeared to show Smith being confronted and pushed into her car.

Her body was found four days later in a park about 20 miles away in Missouri. Hall was interviewed and arrested June 6, after he saw himself on television in surveillance video and contacted a lawyer, who called police.

The girl in the 2004 case recently was brought to Kansas for the hearing from Arizona, where she has been serving time in a juvenile detention facility. The girl is named in court documents, but it is The Associated Press’ policy not to identify most victims of sex crimes.

Court documents show that a police report was filed July 22, 2004, in the case involving the 14-year-old.

But the case was marked “closed/cleared” and “unfounded” about two months later. Hall was not charged then.

The girl was charged later in 2004 in Johnson County with criminal trespass and obstruction of justice. She pleaded guilty to the obstruction charge, a misdemeanor. The trespassing charge was dismissed, documents show. Hall was listed as a witness on the complaint.

The initial report on the 2004 case was not filed by the girl, but by a third party.

The girl testified Wednesday that she ran away from TLC, an Olathe facility for runaways, families and children in need of alternate housing, in July 2004 and met Hall at the apartment where he was living with two other men. The complex is separated from TLC by a chain-link fence.

The girl, who appeared in court in ankle chains, jeans and a white T-shirt, said she had sex with Hall twice and that it was not against her will. She was the only person testifying Wednesday.