A murder case in Douglas County District Court has become more complicated with the one-year suspension of defense attorney Jim Rumsey.

Before the state Supreme Court suspended his law license last month for professional-conduct violations, Rumsey was busy digging through hundreds of pages of police and ballistic reports as the court-appointed attorney for Tremain V. Scott, 22, Overland Park.

Scott is charged with second-degree murder in the death of 21-year-old Quincy M. Sanders during an armed confrontation March 14 at a duplex in the 2600 block of Ridge Court.

Now, the task of defending Scott falls to attorney Martin Miller, whom Judge Paula Martin appointed last month to replace Rumsey. One of Miller’s first tasks is to review a transcript of a five-day preliminary hearing held in June, which featured testimony from witnesses that was at times conflicting and cloudy.

“There are things that have already been set in motion that I will follow up on, and there are other things I have to look at with a fresh set of eyes,” said Miller, a former prosecutor in the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office.

One factor working in Miller’s favor is that the trial still is more than two months away. It’s set to begin Oct. 20, but Miller said he might have a scheduling conflict for that date.

In his preparations for the case, Rumsey pored over documents including crime-scene diagrams, an autopsy, and more than 325 pages of police reports, he wrote in a recent court document.

One factor that makes the case complicated, he wrote, is that an autopsy suggested Sanders was shot 18 times. Kansas Bureau of Investigation officials believe there were at least two other weapons used in the “gun battle” that led to Sanders’ death, Rumsey wrote.

A 22-year-old Topeka man, Corey T. Robinson, is charged with aiding and abetting the slaying.

Rumsey recently asked Martin to declare the Scott case an “exceptional case” because of the amount of work he put into it. If Martin grants the motion, it means Rumsey could be reimbursed for more than the maximum amount — $1,000 — the state normally allows appointed defense attorneys to claim for their work on high-level felony cases that don’t go to trial.

Rumsey estimated he put nearly 21 hours into the case in court and about twice that amount out of court. Court-appointed defense attorneys in Kansas earn $50 per hour.

Rumsey, reached by telephone, said he couldn’t discuss the case or say how many other cases he had pending at the time of his suspension. A court schedule shows that five of Rumsey’s clients were scheduled to appear in criminal cases this week in Douglas County.