Sentencing for a man convicted of second-degree murder was postponed until Friday after his defense attorney on Wednesday initiated a lengthy new-trial hearing.

A jury convicted Jason L. Morgan, 30, on Sept. 22 in the 2010 shooting death of 43-year-old Roy Edward Wyatt outside his home on Opelousas Street. 

Morgan’s defense attorney, Ted Hartman, said he was unable to locate a witness who could have helped Morgan’s case by contradicting the trial testimony of Wyatt’s son, Jeremy Wyatt. 

“To not let us put this witness on in front of a jury means Jason Morgan didn’t get a fair shake,” Hartman said.

During trial, Wyatt said he was standing across the street from the crime scene with Wayne Jones and witnessed the shooting.

When called to the stand later, one of Hartman’s investigators claimed Wyatt’s testimony was contrary to a statement he gave her prior to trial. She said Wyatt told her he was standing at a nearby basketball court and could not have seen the shooter or positively identified him as Jason Morgan.

Hartman alleged detectives and prosecutor Rick Bryant knew he was looking for Jones and that Jones was incarcerated at the Calcasieu Correctional Center.

When he took the stand on Wednesday, Jones said he was incarcerated in the Jeff Davis Parish jail on a probation violation when he was transferred to Calcasieu Parish as a material witness the week before Morgan’s trial.

Jones said detectives from the Lake Charles Police Department and Bryant questioned him about the shooting. He told Hartman that when he told Bryant where he was standing when the shooting happened, Bryant tried to dispute it.

Bryant said that while he thought Jones’ testimony might have substantiated the state’s case, he opted not to call him to the witness stand during trial. The prosecutor said he also told Hartman that Jones was at the Calcasieu jail the day before it was Hartman’s turn to call witnesses.

Judge David Ritchie, in denying the new-trial motion, said Hartman did not do everything in his power to interview Jones when he found out where Jones was.

Also, the judge said Jones’ testimony would have been “minimally helpful to the defense” and did not fulfill the requirements to grant a new trial.

Ritchie set Morgan’s sentencing for 9 a.m. Friday after Hartman declined to waive the legally mandated 24-hour delay between a hearing and sentencing.