YOUNGSTOWN — The trial of two juveniles, only recently indicted on charges of killing 14-year-old Landon Lockhart, is expected to begin Aug. 7.

Anjuan Whitfield and Anthony Wilkins Jr., both of whom turned 18 recently, were arraigned July 11 after being indicted June 28. They appeared for their first pretrial hearing Monday morning, where they agreed to postpone their trial from July 31 to Aug. 7.

Whitfield and Wilkins were 16 when they are alleged to have killed Lockhart, whose body was found Jan. 13, 2022, in a wooded area off North Truesdale Avenue on the East Side. Lockhart, of Parkwood Avenue on the South Side, had gone missing Nov. 21, 2021.

A third teen charged in the case, Elijah Carlisle, 17, pleaded “true” in Mahoning County Juvenile Court early in June to involuntary manslaughter in Lockhart’s death.

Carlisle will be detained in an Ohio Department of Youth Services facility until he is 21. Carlisle said he was in the car with Whitfield, Wilkins and Lockhart the day Lockhart was killed. Carlisle has testified that he remained in the car when the other teens got out.

The purpose of Monday’s hearing was for Whitfield and Wilkins to sign time waivers, meaning a waiver of their right to be tried within a specific period of time. But the waiver was for only a short time. Judge Anthony Donofrio of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court approved the new trial date Monday.

During the hearing, the attorneys made it clear that the Aug. 7 trial date is for real, and they expected the trial to go forward on that day, despite the case having been in common pleas court only a short time. Whitfield and Wilkins were bound over to adult court about a month ago.

But as court observers noted, the attorneys in the case — Tony Meranto representing Whitfield and John Shultz representing Wilkins — have been representing Whitfield and Wilkins since the charges first were filed in Mahoning County Juvenile Court about a year ago. Both young men were first detained in the Mahoning County Juvenile Justice Center on unrelated matters in May 2022.

Both are indicted on aggravated murder with a firearm specification and having weapons while not allowed. Each could get a life prison sentence if convicted. Both are in the Mahoning County jail in lieu of $500,000 bond.

In recent years, a couple of juvenile murder cases have been bound over to adult court besides this case.

These include Danyo Sellers, 16, charged with murder and three counts of attempted murder, being held in the Mahoning County Juvenile Justice Center in the April 15 shooting death of Amya Monserrat, 15, outside of Martha’s Boulevard Bar and Grille on Southern Boulevard; and Brandon Crump, now 20, charged with killing Rowan Sweeney, 4, in a home on Perry Street in Struthers on Sept. 21, 2020. Crump was 17 at the time. Crump’s case is now in common pleas court.