A Jan. 9 trial date was confirmed Friday for an itinerant accused of fatally stabbing a 41-year-old Lake Elsinore man during a confrontation in a business center parking lot.

Steven James Smith, 51, was arrested last summer following a Riverside County Sheriff’s Department investigation into the slaying of Fabian Rodriguez.

Along with murder, Smith is charged with a sentence-enhancing allegation of using a deadly weapon — a knife — in the commission of a felony.

During a status hearing at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta Friday, Superior Court Judge Joshua Knight conferred with the prosecution and defense regarding scheduling options for trial proceedings, and both sides agreed to be prepared to move forward in the first half of January.

Smith is being held in lieu of $1 millio

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