A man charged with murdering the son of a millionaire Scots businessman in the US is set to stand trial next year.
The body of Adrian Bonar, 34, was found in the boot of an abandoned car in Anaheim, California, in October last year.
The US Army veteran had been wrapped in tarpaulin and bound with duct tape.
Antonio Silva Lopez, 28, was arrested at his home in nearby Santa Ana a month later and charged with Mr Bonar’s murder.
Lopez has pleaded not guilty and his case was called at the Orange County Superior Court last week.
Judge Kimberly Menninger set a pre trial hearing for February 2021 and Lopez has been remanded in custody.
The charge against him states that he did ‘unlawfully and with malice afterthought kill Adrian Bonar on or about October 4, 2019’.
Another charge accuses him of kidnapping an unidentified man between November 15 and November 18, 2019, for ‘ransom and extortion’.
Mr Bonar, a father of two, had served three tours of duty in Iraq and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
His father is businessman Brian Bonar, 73, originally from Greenock, Renfrewshire. He moved to the US with his ex-wife Linda, from Stewarton, Ayrshire, before their son was born.
Earlier this year, the tycoon told how his other son Cannon, 27, took his own life because he was haunted by his older brother’s murder.
The entrepreneur, who runs firms in the financial sector and restaurants in California, said Cannon “went to a really dark place” after the killing.
