A court has agreed on a timeline for lawyers to file witness lists in the murder case of a Northern Territory police officer charged over the fatal shooting of 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker.
Constable Zachary Rolfe is charged with one count of murder over Mr Walker's death in the remote Aboriginal community of Yuendumu, about 300 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs, in November 2019.
He appeared in the Alice Springs local court today by video link from Canberra and intends to plead not guilty.
Judge John Birch told defence counsel he was concerned about future delays in the matter.
"I note the matter first came before the court on December 12 last year," he said.
"The more delay there is, the longer it will be in the future that an appropriate amount of time can be set aside to undertake a preliminary examination, if that’s the way the matter is to proceed this year."
He ordered the defence to provide its witness list before July 3, and the prosecution to respond with its own list by July 17.
Additional witnesses will need to be filed by the defence by July 24.
A hard copy of evidence will be provided to the court by August 5, ahead of an August 14 court date.
'Substantive' evidence served to defence
Prosecutor Collette Dixon told the court that "substantive" evidence had been served to Mr Rolfe's lawyers, and that there had been requests made for further materials to be obtained by police.
The court also heard the defence was seeking a non-publication order, a move which was consented to by the prosecution.
That matter will be heard in court on July 1.
Ned Hargraves from the Justice for Walker campaign said the delays were frustrating.
"We are so anxious, we can't wait — this will make something out of it and help [put] us at ease," he said.
"It's a stress really for us … I think it's too long, but slowly, slowly it's getting to a place where we will get what we want.
"All those times it's pushed back … we as yappa [Warlpiri people] , we want to get it over and done with because the Kartia [non-Indigenous] system is not our system, and we have to go along with it."
