A Sarasota attorney has taken up the case of a man accused of stabbing his female roommate in Holmes Beach.
Harland L. Milhorn II filed his court appearance April 16 in the case of 24-year-old Andrew James Helderman, who, until Milhorn stepped up, had been represented by a court-appointed public defender.
Milhorn said he was “just getting up to speed” on the case and declined comment on whether he’d be looking to postpone a trial now set for July.
Helderman is charged with one count of first-degree attempted murder in the March 14, 2014, attack. He also is charged with one count of aggravated assault for threatening a male roommate who tried to rescue the woman.
The three lived in a Clark Drive apartment where Holmes Beach Police Officer Steve Ogline allegedly found Helderman on top of a woman in a bloody bathtub. She had been stabbed and Ogline held the suspect at gunpoint, ordered him into another room and arrested him.
Helderman’s docket sounding is set at 9 a.m. July 6 for the trial period beginning July 20 at the Manatee County Judicial Center, 1051 Manatee Ave. W., Bradenton.