By Peggy Senzarino, Mason City Globe Gazette

FORT DODGE — A new trial date has been set in the case of a Northwood man accused of first-degree murder.

Tyrone Washington Jr., 41, Northwood, will now stand trial at 9 a.m. Tuesday, July 7, in Webster County District Court in Fort Dodge for the 2013 stabbing death of his ex-girlfriend Justina Smith, 30, also of Northwood.

The trial was set to begin on May 11. It was moved to Webster County on a change of venue due to the lack of African-Americans in Worth County. Washington is African American.

On Tuesday as jury selection was scheduled to begin, District Judge Colleen Weiland dismissed the panel of potential jurors summoned to hear the case saying the nearly all-white panel prejudiced the defendant’s possibility of getting a fair trial.

Smith’s body was found a near a tree in Northwood’s Swensrud Park on Aug. 5, 2013.

Washington is being held in the Worth County Jail under $500,000 bond.