A Windham, New Hampshire man is seemingly delaying the inevitable as a judge agreed to push back his sentencing while he installs new legal counsel. The 48-year-old man is up against charges stemming from an accident he caused, which claimed the life of a motorcycle rider from Salem and injured two others. One of the injured riders lost his leg in the accident. If convicted of the charges, the man could potentially spend 20 years behind bars.

But the man's fate is now on hold. He was slated to be sentenced recently, but pleaded to the judge that his attorneys were not effective and he wanted to enlist the help of new ones. The judge obliged and set another hearing for Jan. 24, 2012. Not only is the man bringing new faces to his aid, he also wants to change his 'guilty' plea to 'not guilty' so that the case can go to trial.

The Deputy County Attorney strongly objected to the requests, claiming that the man was just trying to delay the proceedings.

But the accused man said that he discovered new evidence in the case contained in the accident reconstruction report that could potentially help him. He, however, did not go into further details on what that new evidence was. The man also said that he felt pressured by his court-appointed public defenders to plead guilty in the case and accept a plea bargain.

Oddly enough, the judge shot down a similar request by the man on Nov. 15 before agreeing to it just recently. The man is being accused of driving his SUV into a large group of motorcyclists who were participating in a charity ride along Route 111 in Hampstead. The accident claimed the life of a 49-year-old woman and injured her husband. The other victim was a man from Salem who lost part of his left leg and broke multiple ribs.

Source: Eagle-Tribune, "Man allowed to change lawyers right before sentencing," Doug Ireland, Dec. 6, 2011