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Judge Sets Plea Hearing in Grand Lake Boating Deaths Case

Booking Photo-Delaware County

JAY, Okla. (AP) — A plea hearing has been scheduled for next month for a Tulsa man charged with manslaughter in connection with the deaths of two University of Arkansas students in a boating collision last year.

John Deselms is charged with manslaughter in the May 14, 2013, deaths of Rachel Nichole Swetnam of Grove and William "Trey" Varner III of Texarkana, Arkansas. Prosecutors allege that Deselms was operating a boat under the influence of alcohol when it crashed into a houseboat parked on Oklahoma's Grand Lake.

Swetnam, Varner and Deselms were all students at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.

At a court hearing Monday, a judge scheduled an Aug. 20 hearing for Deselms to enter a plea in the case.