PORT ANGELES — Changes in legal representation and criminal charges have pushed out a trial for a Port Townsend man accused of killing a 70-year-old Sequim man in May.
Aaron C. Fisher, 37, will be represented by attorney Lane Wolfley in two separate cases after Fisher’s original lawyer, Alex Stalker, cited a conflict related to one of Fisher’s cases.
Stalker told Judge Brent Basden last month that the Clallam County Public Defender’s Office has a conflict with a person related to a criminal case in which Fisher allegedly communicated with a minor for immoral purposes.
Attorney William Payne was appointed on Sept. 3 to represent Fisher, but he too cited a conflict due to representing another complicated case and those types of cases being assigned on a rotational basis.
On Oct. 31, Basden assigned Wolfley to represent Fisher.
Basden said that “it makes a lot of sense for one attorney to represent (Fisher) in both cases.”
A new five-day trial was scheduled to begin on Dec. 15. A status hearing is set for 1 p.m. Nov. 21.
Fisher’s previous trial date was scheduled to begin Nov. 17.
He is accused of killing Richard G. Madeo after allegedly punching him in the face on May 6 and knocking him unconscious in a parking lot, according to court documents.
Madeo died two days later after he was transported to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, court documents said.
Fisher originally was charged with second-degree assault, but he was released on May 9 for the investigation in Madeo’s death to be completed, Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Michele Devlin said.
Law enforcement arrested Fisher in SeaTac on July 23, and he pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder on Aug. 1.
Fisher also was charged in September with a count of communication with a minor for immoral purposes. He pleaded not guilty, and on Oct. 24, Fisher pleaded not guilty to two additional charges of possessing depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct in the first and second degree.
Fisher faces up to five years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine for the original charge, and 10 years in prison and/or $20,000 for each new offense.
Judge Elizabeth Stanley issued a no contact order between Fisher and the minor in September. He is not allowed to be within 1,000 feet of the minor for five years.
No trial date has been set for Fisher in the alleged sexual offenses as they will be after the second-degree murder charge, Basden said.
Fisher could face up to life in prison and/or a $50,000 fine for the second-degree murder charge.
In Clallam County Superior Court on Oct. 24, Devlin warned Fisher not to speak with any children younger than 16 as it is against his conditions of release if he posted his $150,000 bail.
She said they listened to jail calls, and he was speaking with the child of his girlfriend, so she warned him as he cannot have contact with any non-biological female younger than 16. The child is not the minor in the case, Devlin said.
No formal action was taken following the complaint.
