Man in prison for wife's killing arraigned on federal charge

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (AP) - A former Missouri man serving a 20-year sentence for killing his estranged wife and burying her body on a Mississippi River island has pleaded not guilty to a related federal charge.

Forty-five-year-old Clay Waller was arraigned Tuesday in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, on a count of interstate domestic violence. A judge assigned Waller to be represented by a public defender, denied Waller bond and scheduled his next court appearance for Aug. 11.

The indictment alleges Waller traveled between Illinois and Missouri in mid-2011 intending to kill his estranged wife, Jacque Waller.

That 39-year-old mother of triplets went missing in June 2011. Two years later, Clay Waller led police to a shallow island grave near Alexander County, Illinois.

The federal count is punishable by up to life in prison.