A judge on Tuesday set a new trial date for an aggravated battery case that was postponed last month when the key witness was shot and seriously injured hours before trial.

During a brief hearing in Douglas County District Court, Judge Robert Fairchild rescheduled Louis G. Galloway’s trial for Feb. 26. The trial originally was set to begin Dec. 20 but was postponed after the victim in the case, Michael S. Miller, 38, was shot six times in Ottawa in what prosecutors allege was a plot to keep Galloway’s trial from going forward.

Four Lawrence residents, including a woman prosecutors say is Galloway’s sister, have been charged with the shooting. Galloway has not been charged and maintains he had nothing to do with it.

If convicted at trial of battering Miller, Galloway faces 13 years in prison because of his long criminal record. But a court-appointed defense attorney spoke out Tuesday in Galloway’s defense, saying there’s evidence Galloway was acting in self-defense during the fight with Miller in September 2005.

Had the trial begun as scheduled, defense attorney Andrew Piekalkiewicz said in an interview Tuesday, Galloway stood a good chance of being acquitted.

Police say that Miller told them that Galloway, his neighbor, barged into his apartment in the 1200 block of New York Street and began beating him after Miller had told him to leave his home. Two women also were in the apartment at the time, Miller said.

Miller said he suffered injuries including a broken rib and a possible broken nose, but Piekalkiewicz pointed out that Miller declined medical treatment that night and didn’t go to the doctor until the next day in Garnett. He said medical records from Garnett showed that Miller tested positive for cocaine and THC.

Piekalkiewicz withdrew from the case last week after learning he could be called as a witness in the case pending in Ottawa against the four people charged with plotting to shoot Miller: Jeffery A. Campbell, Lisa Winter, Lee Roy House Jr. and Kay F. Gaillard-Taylor, Galloway’s sister.

Piekalkiewicz said he had interviewed Winter and planned to call her as a defense witness because she claimed to have overheard Miller saying he threw the first punch against Galloway.

Galloway has four other cases pending in District Court. One – an allegation that he threatened a police officer in 2004 – was scheduled for trial today. But his new court-appointed attorney, Jason Billam, asked for it to be postponed, in part because of pretrial publicity including a front-page story about Galloway in Sunday’s Journal-World.

“The timing can’t be worse,” Billam said, holding up a copy of the paper. “This is bad stuff for my client.”

Galloway said he didn’t think a short delay would make much difference.

“You can’t forget that,” he said, indicating the article. “Some people will probably post it on their wall and throw darts at it for 20 years.”

Assistant District Attorney Brandon Jones said after Tuesday’s hearing that he couldn’t comment on Miller’s condition.