SCOTTSVILLE — Two men accused in connection with the 2019 fatal shooting of an Allen County man at his home saw their cases scheduled for a trial next spring.

Derek Lucas, 26, of Jamestown, Indiana, and Rylan Wiles, 22, of Brownsburg, Indiana, will go to trial May 12 in Allen Circuit Court on charges of murder, first-degree burglary, first-degree robbery and tampering with physical evidence.

The two are accused of involvement in the death of Justin Wix, 47, who was shot May 7, 2019, at his Scottsville home on Stinson Lane.

According to prior court testimony and court records, Wiles is alleged to have fired the shot that caused Wix’s death.

Lucas appeared Tuesday in court with his attorney, Steve Romines, for a pretrial conference at which he learned of the trial date from Allen Circuit Judge Mark Thurmond.

Wiles was not in court Tuesday, and Thurmond told his attorney, Ken Garrett, that Wiles should be available in person for future hearings at the risk of being jailed for contempt, mentioning prior court dates that Wiles did not attend.

Garrett told the court that he received an e-mail earlier that morning that said that Wiles’ mother was in the hospital for a medical emergency.

The prosecution of the case will change hands next year, when Allen County Commonwealth’s Attorney-elect Mike Lindsey takes office.

Lindsey defeated current Commonwealth’s Attorney Corey Morgan in the Republican primary earlier this year and has no opposition in the general election this November.

Morgan said in court Tuesday that Lindsey will have full access to the case file as soon as is feasible.

Recent hearings in the case have featured discussions about the status of co-defendant Sevonte Sumpter-Bey’s case.

Sumpter-Bey initially pleaded guilty in 2021, but later that year requested to withdraw his guilty plea, asserting that he suffered from dissociative identity disorder and that his medical condition prevented him from effectively taking criminal responsibility.

Sumpter-Bey was then evaluated and ended up pleading guilty last year to charges of first-degree manslaughter by complicity, second-degree robbery by complicity and second-degree burglary by complicity, and he awaits sentencing.

Romines has claimed that records of Sumpter-Bey’s psychiatric evaluation conclude that Sumpter-Bey did not suffer any mental illness, and has argued that Sumpter-Bey essentially faked symptoms in an effort to obtain a better plea deal from prosecutors.

In May, Romines filed a motion to allow for testimony from an expert witness for the defense who would testify about the validity of Sumpter-Bey’s diagnosis claim.

Romines said in his motion that the witness, who has not been identified in public filings, would provide testimony that would address Romines’ claims that Sumpter-Bey’s “manufactured claims are likely a strategic attempt to manipulate the judicial process by evading responsibility and implicating (Lucas).”

“This issue goes to (Sumpter-Bey’s) entire credibility as a witness in his case,” Romines said in court.

Morgan has filed no response to the motion and took no position Tuesday, and the motion awaits a ruling from Thurmond.

Wix’s death was investigated by Kentucky State Police, which received a tip from someone who reported overhearing the three co-defendants boast about the incident, according to prior court testimony.

Lucas and Wiles declined to give statements to police, but Sumpter-Bey incriminated himself and the other two men during a police interview, according to testimony from a 2019 preliminary hearing in Allen District Court from the late KSP Detective Jonathan Johnson.