A 44-year-old transient has been indicted for murder in the death of a Reno man found dead Oct. 3, 2017, in a Stateline hotel room.

Jose Rodriguez-Quezada faces a charge of open murder with use of a deadly weapon in connection with the death of Kevin Edwards.

The Douglas County grand jury returned the indictment on Wednesday, according to Douglas County District Attorney Mark Jackson, who presented the case.

The bail in the case was set at $1.5 million. Rodriguez-Quezada is being held at the Washoe County Detention Facility on an illegal re-entry hold by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

According to Jackson, Rodriguez-Quezada was homeless, unemployed and living near the river in the Reno-Sparks area for the past year.

Edwards, 56, was found dead in a room at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Oct. 3 after Douglas County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a death investigation. His BMW was missing from the hotel and was the subject of a regional search. It was found on Oct. 6 in Wadsworth Nevada.

“In Nevada, an open murder charge includes the offense of murder of the first degree and also necessarily includes the lesser included offenses of murder of the second degree, voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter, where less than all the elements of first degree murder are present,” Jackson said. “If convicted at trial, a defendant may only be convicted of one of these offenses.”

The case has been assigned to Department 1 of the Ninth Judicial District Court.

Rodriguez-Quezada is scheduled to appear in District Court for his arraignment and entry of plea on Jan. 23.

The grand jury first convened a year ago.

As previously reported, authorities identified Rodriguez-Quezada as a person of interest in Edwards’ death in late October. Authorities arrested Rodriguez-Quezada on Nov. 22 in Sparks, Nevada, after receiving reports of a suspicious person sleeping on a sidewalk near the University of Nevada Reno Agricultural Ranch area on east McCarran Boulevard.