FLORENCE — Randolph John Rose Jr., 41, accused of shooting a middle finger off another driver on State Route 347 in April, returned to court today as his trial date fast approaches.

Rose had his case, in which he has pleaded not guilty, continued this afternoon as Pinal County Superior Court set a new trial date and instructed defense counsel to refile a motion regarding bond conditions.

Rose appeared out of custody with his attorney, Vicky Lopez. Lopez told the court she had submitted “a very, very long deviation request with information … to the state late last week” and that prosecutors would need more time to review it before the case could move forward.

A deviation request is a common precursor to plea deals.

Judge Jason Holmberg scheduled the next trial setting for Sept. 22 at 9 a.m.

While the continuance was granted without objection, Lopez spent much of the hearing re-urging a bond reduction request that Holmberg had previously denied. At a June hearing, the court allowed Rose to remain out of custody as long as he traveled for work but declined to lower his bond.

Lopez explained that circumstances had changed since that earlier hearing.

“When this job did the check and found out about these charges, … they’ve agreed to keep him on right now, but they will not let him travel for work,” she said. “So, zero work travel. I wanted to re-urge the issue of reducing his [bond].”

Court filings and defense arguments indicate Rose may have post-traumatic stress related to his prior military service, and defense counsel has may try to argue against sending a veteran to prison, though the court declined to rule today. Holmberg instead told Lopez to file a new written motion.

“You’re gonna have to put that in writing and the state’s gonna have an opportunity to respond because the victim does have a right to be heard,” he said from the bench.

Rose faces 20 years in prison on charges of drive-by shooting, illegal discharge of a firearm and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.