HOULTON – The trial of a local man accused of beating and stabbing a woman to death inside her motel room last December is unlikely to start before winter, a state prosecutor said.

Daniel Boles, 30, was charged last winter with murder in the Dec. 9, slaying of Jacqueline Shorey, 57, of Houlton.

Shorey’s body was found inside a blood-spattered room at the Scottish Inns motel on Bangor Street. An autopsy determined that she had died of “multiple trauma to the head and neck” and had been beaten and stabbed.

Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson said the trial was originally scheduled to take place in October. The trial was postponed, however, to give Boles’ attorney time to prepare his defense and Benson speculated that it would be at least winter before it began.

Boles was arrested and charged with Shorey’s murder on Dec. 18. While Boles admitted to police that he had purchased drugs from Shorey on Dec. 6., he implicated two other individuals in the murder and pleaded not guilty to the charge in January.

He remains at the Aroostook County Jail.

According to an affidavit filed by Maine State Police Detective Joshua Haines, Boles denied that he murdered Shorey but said that he sat in a vehicle while two other men went inside Room 136 of the Scottish Inns to rob her of drugs and cash.

He claimed that the two had come to his home on the morning of Dec. 9 and asked him for a ride to the motel to carry out a plan “to knock out Jackie and take her drugs and money.”

The victim’s son, Tim Shorey, was incarcerated at the time of the incident and told investigators that his mother had returned to Maine from Louisiana on Dec. 1, and had planned to sell both her own and his prescriptions for oxycodone and Percocet to raise the $10,000 needed for his bail.

According to Boles, the two men that he accompanied to the motel walked into Shorey’s room and ran out to the car between five and seven minutes later with blood on their hands.

The two allegedly told Boles “she resisted” when he asked them what had happened.

Boles said that he then went into Shorey’s room, touched her neck and could “tell immediately that she was dead.”

He told police that the two men threatened to kill him if he spoke of the incident.

There were no weapons present in the room, according to the affidavit.

The two implicated by Boles denied their involvement in the murder during interviews with police and have not been charged.

Investigators said in the affidavit that a detective saw apparent bloodstains in a bathroom of a home where Boles is alleged to have changed his pants on Dec. 9.

State police Detective Dale Keegan also saw “small cuts” on the knuckles of Boles’ right hand during an interview on Dec. 11, which he believed appeared recent.

The suspect said that he suffered the injuries after ripping the spark plug wires out of the family car during a fight with his girlfriend.

The woman confirmed the story to police. She also said that Boles and another person had concocted but later aborted a plan to rob Shorey at another motel five days before the murder.

Christopher Leger, Boles’ attorney, said in February that his client maintained his innocence. Boles voluntarily submitted fingerprints and a DNA sample to police.

Boles was convicted of two counts of theft by unauthorized taking or transfer, two counts of burglary and one count of escape in 1996.

Shorey, a former phlebotomist and school bus driver, is believed to have checked into the Scottish Inns motel on Dec. 6, and was scheduled to appear at a hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Dec. 9. She then planned to return to Louisiana.

Her body was found later that evening after friends asked motel staff to check on her well-being.