June Trial Date for JCC Man Charged in Wife's Death

By Sam Thrift Thursday, January 26, 2012

Barton Dale Trevillian

A June 4 trial date has been set for a James City County man charged with first-degree murder in the death of his wife, who was found strangled in a vacant lot last summer.

York-Poquoson Sheriff's investigators arrested 60-year-old Barton Dale Trevillian on Nov. 15 at his residence in the Springhill neighborhood. Trevillian was denied bond Nov. 22 and is currently being held at the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail.

Trevillian is accused of killing his wife, 49-year-old Kuan-Yu Trevillian, whose body was found July 10 in a vacant lot in an upper York County neighborhood, about 10 miles from her home.

York-Poquoson Sheriff's Lt. Dennis Ivey, Jr. said Kuan-Yu Trevillian was strangled, and "there were indications of a struggle" between the suspect and the victim.

Trevillian had reported his wife missing July 9, telling police she had gone for a run that evening and not returned. Around 8:15 the next morning, a passerby spotted a woman's body in some tall grass in the 300 block of Clifton's Bluff, a sparsely built-out street. It was Kuan-Yu Trevillian, wearing the same athletic clothing and shoes her husband had reported she'd worn when he last saw her.

Police searched the Trevillian home around midnight July 12, but the search warrant was sealed and police would not say what they had been looking for and whether it was found.

Five days have been set in York County Circuit Court for Trevillian’s trial.

"The reason it has taken so long to go to trial is because we are still waiting on forensic examination results and it is going to be a complicated case," said York-Poquoson Commonwealth's Attorney Ben Hahn. "The defense actually asked for a two-week trial, but we thought that was too long. They waived their right to a speedy trial so they could have the five days set for the trial and scheduling conflicts with the defense."