The lawyer for the Wisconsin man accused of strangling his 14-year-old stepson with a necktie says it's too early to say how her client will plead.

Defense attorney Barbara Privat (PREE'-voh) says she has no other comment on behalf of 37-year-old Charles Avey Sr. of Grafton.

A judge on Wednesday scheduled Avey for a Jan. 13 preliminary hearing.

Avey is charged with first-degree intentional homicide and felony bail jumping. Prosecutors say he strangled Cody A. Reetz last month to punish his wife and her relatives for interfering in his business.

A criminal complaint says about the time Cody was killed, Avey's wife was filing a police report alleging that Avey bludgeoned her with a hammer a week earlier.

Avey remains jailed on $750,000 cash bond.