Saying the defense left him without options, Judge Guy Bradberry on Thursday granted a continuance in the trial of Kevin Daigle, who is accused of fatally shooting trooper Steven Vincent in 2015. The trial, which was to begin Sept. 18, was reset for April 30.

Defense attorney Kyla Romanach has said the defense isn’t prepared because lead attorney David Price died and it hasn’t added an attorney to its team. Romanach said Thursday that she is ill and “would have difficulty trying the case at this time.” 

Bradberry asked Romanach if her office could ever handle the case. “Yes, if we have more time,” she said.

He said the defense had been given adequate time and had received previous delays. “Nobody can go to trial on this case in 11 days? This client would not have representation?” Bradberry said. Romanach replied, “That’s correct.”

Prosecutor Rick Bryant said he was “taken aback” by the defense’s inability to prepare for trial.

“We’ve gone on good faith that this would go to trial and that the defense would bring in people they needed to help them with this,” Bryant said. “As we sit here today, they have one attorney on a capital case, and they know they have to have two attorneys. I’m tired of this going on and on and on.”

State public defender Jay Dixon Jr., who contracts with offices that have public defenders on staff, told Bradberry that capital cases “require more time and resources.”

Bradberry said it distressed him to be 11 days from the start of trial and to find the defendant has no counsel.

He gave Dixon 15 days to provide names of two attorneys from his pool of public defenders as prospects to assist in the case. 

Bradberry will hold a previous-crimes evidence hearing in the case on Oct. 13.