A hearing is set next week for a Butler Township man charged with using the bank debit card of a man killed last year in his East Butler home.

But Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger on Tuesday said Raheem R. Archer, 23, has been all but cleared in the Dec. 30 slaying of James S. Martin.

“I think (Archer) was a person of interest,” Goldinger said. “I can’t say he can be completely ruled out but at this point it does appear he was not involved in the homicide as far as we know right now.”

State police Lt. Eric Hermick had identified Archer and Christopher M. Cannon as suspects in the investigation after the two men were allegedly caught on store surveillance video Dec. 31 buying merchandise with Martin’s bank cards.

The investigation, Goldinger said, has been painstaking and exhaustive. And it continues.

Police on Friday charged Cannon, 27, of Butler with stabbing the 74-year-old Martin to death and robbing him of valuables after arranging a private meeting through Craigslist.

Cannon was already in the Butler County Prison following his arrest in January for using the dead man’s bank cards.

A friend visiting Martin for a breakfast date on Dec. 31 found him dead at his home on Tenth Street. An autopsy ruled that he died of multiple stab wounds to the head, neck, chest and back.

“(Cannon) is the only suspect at this time,” Goldinger said, “but the investigation is still ongoing so I can’t say we’ve closed the book on that completely.”

Police say Cannon, Archer and Cannon’s half-sister, Shauna Cress, used Martin’s bank cards several times after his death, according to court documents.

On the night of Dec. 30 and in the early hours of Dec. 31, Cannon and Cress were allegedly captured on security cameras using the cards to make purchases at Walmart and Sheetz, both in Butler Township, and at the Longhorn Corral in Franklin Township, where Cress had rented a room.

Later in the day on Dec. 31, one of Martin’s cards was denied and the other one was accepted at the Giant Eagle in Center Township for a $413.09 purchase. Store records show that Archer’s Giant Eagle Advantage card was swiped both times.

Also on Dec. 31, Cannon and Archer were seen on surveillance footage making a $206.95 purchase at a Giant Eagle in Beaver County with one of Martin’s cards.

Archer and Cannon were arrested Jan. 5 and charged with access device fraud and receiving stolen property. Archer also was charged with felony drug possession after police say they found a half-dozen baggies of marijuana in the trunk of his car.

Archer’s preliminary hearing on those charges is scheduled for March 14 at District Judge Lewis Stoughton’s office in Chicora. He is free on $5,000 bail.

Online records list Steven Valsamidis of Beaver County as his attorney. Valsamidis did not return telephone calls Monday and Tuesday.

Cannon on Tuesday waived his formal arraignment in Butler County Court on access device fraud charges stemming from his arrest in January.

His preliminary hearing on the latest charges — homicide, robbery, theft by unlawful taking, access device fraud and conspiracy — is also set for March 14 before Stoughton.

He is being held in the county prison without bail.

Goldinger, meanwhile, said investigators are still waiting on DNA results from blood and other evidence taken from Martin’s house. Those findings, he noted, are an important part of the investigation.