October trial for Rottnest head murder

Two men will stand trial next month over the Rottnest Island "head-in-a-bag" murder.

Aaron Carlino and Yovan Joshua Gonzalez appeared in the West Australian Supreme Court via video link from prison on Thursday.

Carlino is accused of murdering 56-year-old racing identity Stephen Cookson while Gonzalez is charged with interfering with his corpse.

Mr Cookson's plastic bag-wrapped head was discovered by a young girl washed up on a Rottnest beach in January last year.

The grim find on Porpoise Bay on the southeast of the island off the Perth coast came three weeks after he was allegedly shot in the head in an apartment in the city's east.

The rest of his body was never found.

Carlino and Gonzalez will face a 20-day trial from October 6.