The attorney of the man charged with second-degree murder in the presumed death of Sabine Musil-Buehler told the court he needed more time to prepare for the trial of the accused, William J. Cumber.
At a Feb. 10 docket sounding, 12th Judicial Court Judge Diana L. Moreland was reluctant to continue the trial set for the end of February — previously postponed in 2014 from April and October trial dates — at Assistant Public Defender Franklin Roberts’ request.
However, by the end of the hearing she had postponed the trial to November 2015.
“Mr. Cumber is a case I just inherited,” Roberts told the court.
“Mr. Cumber and I are trying to create a relationship that he had for two years with the other attorney.
“We lost the lead attorney. We lost the investigator,” he added.
Roberts followed Carolyn Schlemmer on the Cumber case in September 2014, filing a motion to compel discovery, and appearing in court in October.
In December 2014, Schlemmer resigned from the public defender’s office, and the case investigator was fired in November.
Roberts told the judge the February trial also conflicted with another trial he’d been assigned.
Moreland responded that Cumber’s case had priority for the February trial period because Cumber was jailed, and Robert’s conflicting case involved a defendant not in custody.
However, by the hearing’s end, she relented.
“All right, I guess I didn’t realize you inherited it. I apologize,” Moreland said.
Cumber remained silent through the proceeding.
Musil-Buehler went missing Nov. 4, 2008, the night President Barack Obama was first elected.
For several months before her disappearance, the 49-year-old business woman and Cumber, then 39, shared a Magnolia Avenue apartment in Anna Maria, where MCSO investigators found blood belonging to the victim and Cumber.
Investigators also identified Musil-Buehler’s blood in her car after it turned up Nov. 6, 2008.
Ten days after her car was found, a fire broke out at Haley’s Motel, a Holmes Beach property owned and managed by Musil-Buehler and her estranged husband Thomas Buehler.
The fire was ruled intentionally ignited and although Cumber was identified as a “person of interest/suspect,” the case was closed due to lack of evidence, according to a Florida State Fire Marshal’s February 2013 report.
MCSO investigators believe Cumber disposed of Musil-Buehler somewhere on the island and they conducted three searches since November 2008, one prompted by a homeowner who found some of Musil-Buehler’s belongings near the Willow Street beach access.
In December 2008, Cumber was arrested for driving on a suspended license in Marion County. With his arrest, Cumber also violated the condition of a 2006 probation order involving an arson conviction for setting fire to a Bradenton home.
His probation was revoked and he was sentenced to 13.5 years in prison in May 2009.
Cumber remains in Manatee County jail.
Manatee County Sheriff Brad Steube announced the murder charge against Cumber in October 2012.
“I’ve been hoping it would go to trial,” said MCSO Homicide Unit Detective John Kenney. “But it just keeps being postponed and postponed.”
He declined to give specifics but said, MCSO investigators “cleared Thomas Buehler” and that the evidence against Cumber will come out at trial.
On Oct. 7, 2014, the trial was moved to February at the agreement of Roberts and Brown in a court paper that also stated Cumber had waived his right to a speedy trial.
Cumber faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.
His next court appearance is an Oct. 19 docket sounding at the Manatee County Judicial Center, 1051 Manatee Ave. W., Bradenton.