A PLEA hearing has been delayed for a Kidderminster poker player accused of killing his wife in Colorado and going on a “playboy spending spree” before attempting suicide.

The set back came after a principal investigator in the case of alleged murderer Marcus Bebb-Jones, resigned from the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office, apparently over allegations that he improperly used a department credit card.

Questions about the credibility of detective Eric Ashworth as a witness were brought up in a Colorado court on Thursday, May 10, where Bebb-Jones was scheduled to enter a plea in connection with a first-degree murder charge in the death of his wife Sabrina.

The couple owned the Melrose Hotel in Grand Junction, Colorado at the time of her disappearance in 1997.

US prosecuters have alleged that on September 16, 1997 Bebb-Jones, killed his wife and then hid her body in the state’s national park. The next day, he went to Las Vegas, on a $5,700 spending spree, using credit cards either jointly owned or in his wife's name.

His "playboy" weekend culminated in Bebb-Jones putting a pistol in his mouth and shooting himself in the head, although he escaped life-threatening injuries.

Mrs Bebb-Jones’s skull was found on Douglas Pass in Garfield County in 2004.

On Thursday, Matt Morriss, a deputy public defender, used the Ashworth development as part of an argument for asking Judge Dan Petre to delay the plea decision.

Mr Morriss said it called into question some of what happened at a recent preliminary hearing, which concluded with Petre binding Bebb-Jones over for trial.

Det Ashworth was a key witness in the hearing.

Judge Petre delayed the plea date until June 6 in hopes that a last-minute plea agreement might be reached to avoid a trial that 9th Judicial District Attorney Martin Beeson said could last six to eight weeks.

Attorney Beeson told Judge Petre that Bebb-Jones rejected a previous plea deal and none were on the table now. Attourney Beeson said if the case goes to trial, as many as 200 witnesses might be called to the stand.

He issued a written notification that said Det Ashworth’s resignation may have resulted from using an agency-issued credit card to pay for meals for which he already received a per-diem reimbursement. Det Ashworth could not be reached for comment. His involvement in the investigation has included travelling to England, after Bebb-Jones moved back to his home town of Kidderminster with his son after his wife’s disappearance.