Darnell E. Lemons II, the Maricopa Meadows man charged in a dramatic road-rage shooting that started on State Route 347 and ended near a Maricopa elementary school in April, appeared in court this afternoon. Before the scheduled status conference, a potential settlement to the case was unexpectedly revealed.

Before today’s status hearing before Judge Jason Holmberg was underway, the prosecutor disclosed to the defense team that a settlement offer has been “authorized” in Lemons’s case, the details of which had not yet been shared with public defender Michael Nachmanson. While the prosecutor assigned to the case is Monica Sochacki, another attorney sat in her place today and spoke with Nachmanson.

Nachmanson told Judge Holmberg that he needed more time before the case moved forward. His office needed time to sift through discovery, which includes an estimated 18 hours of body camera footage from both Maricopa police officers and Arizona state troopers. He asked the judge for 45 days to get the defense team through that evidence.

Judge Holmberg set the next hearing, one called a trial setting, for July 28 at 1:30 p.m. That hearing is one in which the parties decide if a trial is needed, and if so, when it will be held. Lemons waived his right to a speedy trial. The court noted 140 days remain on his release conditions.

Lemons, 40, is facing multiple felony charges including drive-by shooting, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, endangerment and criminal damage after he allegedly fired at least nine shots through his own windshield at another motorist in an April 8 road-rage incident.

According to troopers, Lemons opened fire on a Ford F-150 that he claimed brake-checked him on SR 347. No one was injured in the shooting, but the truck was struck twice: once in the tailgate and once in a brake light. The pickup’s driver, a Hidden Valley resident, pursued Lemons through Maricopa streets before troopers arrested him near his Sky Lane home.

Authorities later recovered 10 shell casings from inside Lemons’s black Lexus ES sedan. Lemons told officers the Glock 43X used in the shooting belonged to him.

The incident added another layer to Lemons’s legal history. A decade ago, he was convicted of a non-violent felony for misconduct involving weapons after prosecutors dropped more serious gang-related and first-degree murder charges. Lemons served prison time and just weeks before this shooting, he attempted to restore his gun and civil rights. Court records show no ruling was issued on that request.

Lemons’s legal team had asked the judge to prohibit InMaricopa‘s David Iversen from taking photos in court, citing that the newspaper’s large readership could “poison” a local jury pool. The motion centered on previous articles, which Lemons called “inflammatory” and prejudicial in a letter to Judge Holmberg. The biggest point of contention was writing about Lemons’s previous conviction. Nachmanson said the previous coverage “portrays [Lemons] as a murderer and a street gang member.”

“The concern here is that Mr. Iversen taking additional photographs during the pendency of the case, and publishing inflammatory articles, would potentially poison the jury pool should this case proceed to trial,” the filing stated.

The motion says that Lemons was never convicted of murder or gang-related activity. Those 2012 charges were dismissed, and Lemons later pled to a lesser, non-violent felony involving weapons. However, each of these details was previously published by InMaricopa.

Judge Holmberg denied their motion.

Lemons remains out of custody on bond. He declined comment about the court case.