A man charged in connection with a 23-year-old Adams County homicide will have a preliminary hearing in Quincy July 16.

Wallace Spence, 52, was charged with concealing a homicide in connection with the discovery of a dead man near Lima in 1985. The body was identified as Thomas William Brannon, who was about 25 when he died. Spence was arrested in a Mississippi jail and brought back to Quincy last weekend.

Spence is being represented by Public Defender Todd Nelson. His preliminary hearing will take place before Judge Scott Walden, though Spence could waive his right to have the hearing.

During a hearing earlier this week, Spence said he “wanted to plead guilty to this as soon as possible.” He allegedly confessed to authorities about killing Brannon in late 1984.

Spence hasn’t been charged with murder because Brannon was likely killed outside Illinois. A check of Mississippi court and prison records revealed that Spence assumed Brannon’s identity after his death, even using his name when he married and had children.

Brannon was found near Lima on April 4, 1985, after Adams County sheriff’s deputies responded to a call at the Western Illinois Stone Co. near  Lima. The clothed and decomposed body was found at the east end of County Road 543 in a rock quarry that’s now closed.

Spence remains in the Adams County Jail on $300,000 bond.