Husband of missing Manassas Park mom Mamta Kafle Bhatt to have pre-trial Wednesday

The Manassas Park man charged in his wife's disappearance is set to appear before a judge for pre-trial this week, nearly four months after the mother of his one-year-old daughter went missing.

Police and prosecutors have accused Naresh Bhatt, 37, of killing his wife Mamta Kafle Bhatt, 28. He is officially charged with concealing her body, which still hasn't been found.

Naresh's public defender has argued his innocence, saying Mamta could still be alive and missing.

John Fishwick, a former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia who now does criminal defense, gleaned expertise on how Wednesday afternoon's pre-trial hearing may go.

"There may be more indications of how long the trial is going to last, how many witnesses there are going to be," Fishwick told 7News.

"We may start to get an indication of: will the defense put on any evidence, will Mr. Bhatt testify," he added. "They don't have to tell you that at the pretrial conference, but I think that we'll be to read some of the tea leaves about how the trial is going to go, how long it's going to last, how many witnesses there'll be, and are there any other motions."

Fishwick said some of the sealed evidence, including employment records, could be made public during the trial.

"I'm sure the Commonwealth is trying to build a tight timeline of all of her movements and all of Mr. Bhatt's movements to show when they were together and where each of them was while she was alive," Fishwick said.

He also expects the defense to try to limit the evidence in the case, which ultimately will be up to the judge.

"The case is going to move forward, the evidence is going to come in, but we'll be able to see some of the tea leaves at that hearing about what the trial is going to look like," he added.

Naresh was granted a speedy trial, which is set to begin on Dec. 9.