A 19-year-old St. Joseph man must wait at least another month to learn his sentence for charges stemming from the fatal shooting of Skylar Powell. The lawyer for Dayne Matthews died last week.

According to an obituary in the Kansas City Star, Patrick Peters died last week at age 62, from cryptococcal meningitis, a disease said to be rare in healthy people.

His wife and law partner Shelley Peters filed a motion to continue the defendant’s sentencing. Judge Patrick Robb reset the matter for March 1. It’s not yet clear who will represent Matthews at his sentencing.

Mrs. Peters said her husband had been battling the disease since early November, according to the obituary. Mr Peters served as an assistant prosecutor in Jackson County for eight years, before becoming a defense lawyer.

Matthews pleaded guilty last October to charges of possession of a controlled substance and tampering with evidence. Prosecutors said Matthews and others provided marijuana, and agreed to meet Powell and others in a parking lot near 22nd and Frederick for a drug transaction. But evidence showed the Powell and others planned to rob the drug dealers. Powell was found shot to death later that morning.

As we reported, four co-defendants were sentenced in December, and a fifth was sentenced in October, for their parts in the drug deal and robbery, but no one has been charged with firing the shots that killed Powell.