OCEANSIDE — At an arraignment hearing April 29, a San Diego Superior Court judge set a trial date for a man accused of purposely killing an Oceanside police canine when he jumped off the Coronado Bridge with Stryker the dog.

Judge Daniel Goldstein ordered Cory Nathaniel Byron back to court Sept. 15 for a jury trial.

Byron, who remains in custody in lieu of $1,015,000 bail, is charged with one felony count each of evading police, harming a police dog and causing injury while driving under the influence. He was also charged with a single count each of driving under the influence and hit-and-run, both misdemeanors.

The aforementioned charges stem from the 27-year-old’s approximately 35-minute police chase from Oceanside to San Diego, where Byron eventually jumped from a 200-foot section of the Coronado Bridge on Jan. 31, 2007, with Stryker attached to his arm.

In an interview after the arraignment, defense attorney Anthony Solare said he planned to meet with Deputy District Attorney Paul Myers prior to the May 27 readiness conference to discuss options for his client.

At a preliminary hearing last month, Solare unsuccessfully argued that his client inadvertently harmed the dog when he jumped from the bridge in a failed suicide attempt. Conversely, the canine’s handler, Officer Kedrick Sadler, testified Byron actually held the dog over the edge of the bridge and tried to fling him before leaping off the structure.

A video played by the prosecution taken from a police helicopter showed the several-second altercation from the time Sadler released Stryker to when the dog and Byron landed in the bay. However, because of the angle and quality of the video, which showed only heat signatures of the event, it was not clear whether Byron hung the dog over the bridge before jumping.

After the preliminary hearing, Solare said he believed the video actually supports his theory of what really occurred at that time. He said Byron’s actions on the video were a “matter of interpretation” and that “reasonable minds will differ.”

Byron, who had a blood alcohol level of .17, suffered a collapsed lung from the fall and was hospitalized for one week.