A man accused of killing a Sun Prairie woman in her home last month has been ordered to stand trial on additional charges in connection with a separate murder attempt in Fitchburg last year.

27-year-old Robert Phipps of Chicago is charged with bludgeoning Alicia Hatzinger to death last month.

He also faces charges of attempted murder, robbery and arson in the 2005 attack on a woman in her Fitchburg home.

A Dane County judge said on Monday Phipps must stand trial in both cases, as well as in other cases involving trespassing and attempted robbery.

Prosecutors say Phipps strangled the Fitchburg woman with a phone cord in her apartment, then set fire to the apartment and fled in her car. She had lost consciousness during the strangling but awoke in time to flee the fire.

Phipps is scheduled to face a preliminary hearing in the Hatzinger murder on October 31st.

AP