A Sierra Vista man awaiting trial in Maricopa County for allegedly stabbing several people in March had a court appearance on Monday in Cochise County where he is charged with child molestation from 2020.
Andrew Ryan Courtney appeared from the Cochise County jail while his attorney, Perry Hicks, was in the courtroom of Judge Timothy Dickerson. The parties advised the judge that a plea deal was offered to Courtney last week during a settlement conference conducted by another Cochise County judge.
“There are some things we need to resolve still,” Hicks told the judge as to why the parties were not prepared to move ahead with a pretrial conference on Monday.
Dickerson ordered the parties to return on Aug. 2 for a possible change of plea hearing. If Courtney, 24, rejects the plea offer, then the judge will conduct a Donald Hearing during which Courtney is advised as to what could happen if he goes to trial.
Courtney was arrested in July 2020 in Sierra Vista after he was found hiding in the closet of a 14-year-old girl wearing only the girl’s underwear and one shoe. He ran from the apartment after being discovered by the girl’s mother.
Evidence seized from Courtney’s car, along with messages, images, and videos on the girl’s phone, suggested an unlawful romantic relationship between the two, according to a court records.
Courtney was out of custody awaiting trial on the molestation charge when he was arrested in April after the Chandler Police Department identified him as the person seen on surveillance video stabbing three men at the Chandler Fashion Center on March 12. One of the men was stabbed twice, resulting in a grand jury indictment against Chandler for four counts of felony aggravated assault.
A case management conference is set for Sept. 1 in the Maricopa County case ahead of a December hearing at which time a date will be announced for a jury trial.
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