COEUR d’ALENE — An 11th-hour guilty plea vacated the jury trial scheduled to start today for the second accused killer of William “Bo” Kirk.

As part of an agreement between prosecutors and the public defender’s office, Justin Roy Booth pleaded guilty Monday to first-degree murder and robbery.

In exchange, prosecutors dropped three felonies against the defendant, including second-degree kidnapping, arson and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Booth, who appeared in courtroom 12 at the Kootenai County jail wearing a red jumpsuit and black athletic shoes instead of jailhouse slippers, told First District Judge Scott Wayman that he understood the charges and announced his guilty pleas to the two felonies knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily.

At his arraignment last year, after his co-defendant, David Hutto, received back-to-back life sentences with no chance for parole for his role in the 2016 murder of Kirk, Booth maintained his innocence, blaming Kirk’s murder on Hutto.

Both men were accused of killing Kirk in October 2016 by shooting him in the back and dumping his body along a national forest road.

Investigators said Hutto and Booth — a convicted felon on parole for robbery, burglary and theft — kidnapped Kirk from his driveway in a new development along Ramsey Road in Coeur d’Alene after a road rage incident. The men stole Kirk’s debit card, zip-tied his hands and drove the victim into the Coeur d’Alene National Forest. Kirk’s burned GMC pickup truck was found that night, but it wasn’t until three days after he went missing that Kirk’s body was discovered along Hayden Creek Road.

Kirk’s family sat in the front row at Monday’s change of plea hearing, where Kootenai County Prosecuting Attorney Barry McHugh and deputy prosecutor Rebecca Perez represented the state. Defense attorney Jed Nixon represented the defendant.

After the plea, Nixon asked the court to allow attorneys more time than usual for a sentencing hearing that could last a half day.

“Both sides would appreciate time to collect information to present at sentencing,” Nixon said. He was also granted a request to be present when a presentence investigator interviews his client in preparation for sentencing.

At the Aug. 1 sentencing, Wayman could choose to go along with the plea bargain that calls for a sentence of no more than life behind bars on both counts and allows prosecutors and defense attorneys to argue the fixed portion of the sentence. If Wayman chooses to not accept the plea agreement, Booth would get back his guilty pleas and mediation would start again.

Booth is in the Kootenai County jail on a $2 million bond.