The trial of a Maricopa Meadows man accused of opening fire during a road-rage incident on State Route 347 has been delayed as defense attorneys await key evidence, including Maricopa police body-camera footage and cell phone data.
Darnell Lemons II, 40, appeared his afternoon out of custody in Pinal County Superior Court, where public defender Michael Nachmanson requested a 45-day extension. Prosecutors did not object. Judge Jason Holmberg reset the trial-setting hearing for Sept. 8 at 1:30 p.m.
Nachmanson told the court that while his team has received extensive body-camera recordings from Arizona state troopers, they were still waiting for body-worn camera footage from Maricopa police. As the chase ended in Maricopa, it was city cops — not state police — who first encountered Lemons and the alleged victim, a Hidden Valley resident, near the entrance to Alterra on Bowlin Road.
The contents of cell phone seized during the investigation were also downloaded, but defense attorneys have not yet received those results, said Nachmanson.
Lemons faces multiple felony charges, including drive-by shooting, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, endangerment and criminal damage, stemming from the April 8 incident in which he allegedly fired nine shots through his own windshield at a truck driver who allegedly cut him off on SR 347. Authorities said no one was injured, but the other driver’s pickup was struck twice.
While a plea agreement has been “authorized” by prosecutors, no details of any deal were laid out in the Florence courtroom today.
The shooting added to Lemons’s prior legal history. He pleaded guilty in 2012 to a non-violent weapons charge after prosecutors dropped more serious gang-related and murder counts. Court records show he had sought to restore his civil rights weeks before the alleged road-rage incident.
Lemons is accused in one of 10 violent shootings that happened in April and May. Three people are dead, and one person is seriously wounded.
Holmberg noted 140 days remain on Lemons’s speedy-trial clock. Lemons, a resident of Sky Lane, remains free on bond.
