A man scheduled to go on trial next month on charges that he shot someone in the chest with a rifle one year ago may have to wait in jail several more months before his case goes before a jury, all because his attorney recently changed jobs between two Cochise County government departments.
Roger Lee Dalton was arrested and booked into the Cochise County jail Aug. 3, two days after he allegedly shot Israel Tapia from inside a truck stopped near Tapia’s rural residence. He was identified by authorities in part based on the victim’s description of the shooter as a white male with a face tattoo.
Dalton, 58, has been held in the Cochise County jail on a no-bail order awaiting trial, which was supposed to start Aug. 31. But on Monday, he learned that his longtime court-appointed attorney Rodrigo Andrade left the county’s legal advocate’s office and took a position with the county public defender’s office.
And according to Andrade, there is now a conflict which prevents him from ethically representing Dalton because the public defender’s office previously represented one of the witnesses in the case.
Judge Timothy Dickerson was not pleased with the prospect of delaying the trial while a new court-appointed attorney gets up to speed on the case. However, he granted Andrade’s motion to withdraw from representing Dalton even though the judge acknowledged the inconvenience to the defendant who has spent one year in pretrial custody.
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Dalton’s new attorney told the judge she would likely need no more than three months to be ready for trial. But that creates conflicts for Michael Powell, the prosecutor with the Cochise County Attorney’s Office. Powell advised Dickerson that he already has several trials on the calendar the rest of this year.
The judge will set a new trial date after the parties have a chance to confer about scheduling.
Court records show Tapia was shot once in the left upper chest area while working on an air conditioning unit outside his home. He walked to his residence and yelled inside to get his girlfriend’s attention.
Tapia reportedly described the shooter before losing consciousness. He was airlifted to a Tucson trauma hospital where he underwent surgery; the extent of his injuries has not been addressed in open court.
Andrade and Powell have spent much of the summer arguing over whether Tapia’s girlfriend can testify at trial about Tapia’s description of the shooter. The five felonies in Dalton’s indictment are attempted second-degree murder, two counts of aggravated assault, burglary, and disorderly conduct.
Powell has filed a report with the court showing Dalton has nine prior felony convictions from 1981 through 2012 across four states. The convictions involve a controlled substance offense, multiple burglaries, felony possession of marijuana, possession of stolen goods, obstruction of justice, assault with serious bodily injury, and weapon misconduct.
The county attorney’s office wants that information to be considered during sentencing if Dalton is convicted.
