A Routt County judge has decided to postpone a hearing related to a pending decision over whether to try a 16-year-old as an adult.

The 16-year-old is accused of stabbing a woman who was house-sitting at a Steamboat Springs home in April.

Judge Michael O’Hara III said Monday the hearing would be rescheduled to Jan. 28 because a public defender representing the juvenile came down with COVID-19 and was unable to appear in court.

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The judge said that he was informed Friday of the public defender’s illness and called an emergency hearing for Saturday evening to discuss the delay and a potential continuance before deputies with the Routt County Sheriff’s Office were scheduled to collect the juvenile in Grand Junction for his court date.

The hearing’s postponement means O’Hara III will not preside over future proceedings in the case. He said Monday that he is set to retire Jan. 13 and suggested the incoming chief judge for the 14^th Judicial District, Brittany Schneider, would take over on the case.

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The accused juvenile has been held without bond at the Grand Mesa Youth Services Center in Grand Junction since his arrest in April. He is facing charges of attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault and criminal attempt to commit first-degree burglary.

The Steamboat Pilot & Today is not naming the juvenile, pending the decision over whether to try him as an adult.

Following his arrest, prosecutors with the 14^th Judicial District Attorney’s Office requested the juvenile be tried as an adult. The charges are Class 3 and 4 felonies if committed by an adult, meaning the young man could face 4-12 years in state prison if convicted.

According to an arrest affidavit, officers responded to a home in the 1500 block of Mark Twain Court just after 3 a.m. April 23 after receiving a call from a woman who reported someone wearing a ski mask and a red shirt had entered the home through a sliding door.

The victim, 29-year-old Kylie Leggett, a pre-kindergarten teacher in Steamboat, had been hired by a homeowner to watch over the property and take care of a dog while the homeowners were on vacation. Leggett reportedly told police she was trying to push the burglar out of the home when he used a “large Gerber knife” to stab her in the abdomen.

Officers at the scene said in the affidavit they observed what appeared to “be blood droplets on the back porch leading past the baby gate and down the steps to the back yard fence gate,” along with “shoe prints consistent with ‘Crocs,’ the shoe brand.”

Police executed a search warrant at the home of the juvenile’s father in the 3300 block of Columbine Drive roughly 12 hours after responding to the incident.

The affidavit says officers noticed a large Gerber knife in a sheath on a couch in the living room after entering the residence and that the weapon had a small brown stain on it consistent with a blood stain.

The suspect’s father reportedly told police he saw his son around 10 p.m. April 22 and, “didn’t think (his son) left the house but couldn’t be sure.” He later said he knew his son had used his e-bike at some point that night, according to the affidavit.

The juvenile was ordered to be detained without bond at the juvenile facility in Grand Junction where he has remained after Judge O’Hara III ordered him held there.

The emergency hearing for a continuance request was held Saturday evening at 6 p.m. as a result of a public defender representing the juvenile becoming ill.

In an order issued following the meeting, Judge O’Hara III said he ruled that the hearing over whether to try the accused juvenile as an adult should be moved to late January in consideration of the schedules not only of attorneys involved in the case but also expert witnesses who were expected to appear.

“When I have three or four or five attorneys … and 15 witnesses, I have to take everyone’s schedule into consideration,” said O’Hara III during proceedings held Monday.

After closing the hearing, Judge O’Hara III said that he had forgotten to recognize the juvenile’s father, Curtis LeMaster, who had signaled he would like to address the court.

Approaching a microphone positioned at the defense table, LeMaster told O’Hara III that the delay in the case was “a real big injustice” to his son, who he has not been able to communicate with since his incarceration at the juvenile facility in Grand Junction.

“I think extending it to a point where you are not going to be available is a real big injustice,” he said. “You are not taking (my son’s) welfare to heart in all this and even the victim. There is a certain point where I am sure she wants to move on, he wants to move on, we want to move on, and now all of a sudden because somebody has COVID we can’t move on and it’s very frustrating and I just wanted to make sure I said that on the record.”

LeMaster referenced Judge O’Hara III’s familiarity with his son over past charges and argued that the familiarity he held with his son’s history was important.

“It may not be very satisfactory, but judges are supposed to be neutral, detached, judges are supposed to be clean slates, and a pretty good argument could be made that I am not exactly a clean slate when it comes to (the suspect) because he has appeared in front of me a lot of times,” the judge told LeMaster.

“Maybe it is better to have a neutral judge that doesn’t have the history that I do,” he added. “I hope you know, I wanted to do the hearing now.”