Todd Joseph Gallant pleads not guilty to killing P.E.I. teacher in 1988

The man accused of killing a P.E.I. high school teacher in 1988 pleaded not guilty to murder Tuesday morning.

Todd Joseph Gallant, 57, has also elected to be tried before a judge and jury, his lawyer Chris Montigny tolda Charlottetown courtroom.

Gallantwas arrested in January and charged with first-degree murder and interfering with human remains in the Byron Carr case.

Carr was a teacher at Montague Regional High School when he was killed in Charlottetown in November of 1988. Police had few leads after the initial months of investigation and the case went cold.

It was reopened in 2007, withCharlottetown police taking advantage of updated genetic technology to match DNA from the crime scene. They announced this past January that Gallant had been arrested.

Lawyers will return to court in December to work out the logistics of what will have to happen before a trial date can be set.

"The Crown's been really great to work with, the police have been good to provide the information, so we do have it and it's just a question of just going through it and getting it in the order in which we need it," Montigny said after the court appearance.

"Things are complicated by time, the passage of time," he added."I think everyone is interested in moving this forward in the best way we can."