Harry Scribner The trial for a Simi Valley man who shot and killed his daughter’s boyfriend was continued again Tuesday and now may not begin until mid-April.

Harry Scribner, 66, has been waiting for his day in a Ventura County Superior courtroom since November 2008. He faces the charge of involuntary manslaughter with the use of a gun, which could land him in prison for up to 21 years.

Scribner has admitted shooting 31-year-old Bryan Wall in front of the Scribner home on Heavenly Court on Nov. 16, 2008. He remains free on $140,000 bail.

Carlo Spiga, Scribner’s attorney, said both the defense and the prosecution requested additional time to question witnesses.

“The prosecution provided us with a discovery consisting of the victim’s various arrests and violent behavior,” Spiga said. “There were witnesses revealed in the police report and we need to interview these witnesses and find out if what they said to the police is true. We were already aware of the incidents, but there are more witnesses. We also provided the prosecution with more witnesses.”

Bryan Wall The defense attorney said that although the court calendar indicated the trial will begin March 15, there is an option for an additional 30 days, to which both sides are likely to agree.

“I anticipate we’ll be in court by tax time,” he said.

According to Simi Valley police reports, Scribner grabbed his handgun when he was awakened at about 1 a.m. by someone beating on his door. He told police he slept with the gun under his pillow.

He found his daughter and Wall in front of his house. After what police have called an “encounter,” Wall died on Scribner’s driveway of a gunshot wound to the neck.

The prosecution has said there was evidence that Scribner believed his daughter was being beaten by Wall and that he committed the crime in the heat of passion.

Spiga said Scribner didn’t shoot Wall because he was “beating up his daughter.”

“That was just part of it,” he said. “He had been awake for 30 seconds. He was still computing what was going on. Then Bryan charges up to him and Harry raises his gun, and literally in one motion the gun goes off. Harry was in shock.”

Some of the new evidence speaks to Wall’s propensity to violence, the attorney said—hinting that part of his defense will be to show that Scribner had reason to fear his daughter’s boyfriend, who at the time had a blood-alcohol level of .16.

According to Ventura County Superior Court records, Wall had a restraining order filed against him in 2004 after an alleged domestic dispute between him and his sister-in-law, Nichole Johnson.

Ventura County criminal records show that in 2001 Wall was convicted of carrying a loaded firearm in public and resisting or obstructing a peace officer. A charge of carrying a switchblade knife was dismissed in 2006.

Spiga said both families are still hurting.

“Harry feels terrible about what happened,” Spiga said. “He’s sick about it. He was thrust in the middle of something through no fault of his own. I feel very, very bad for Mr. Wall’s family, but he reaped what he sowed.”

Spiga said he estimates the trial will last two to three weeks due to a “fairly long witness list.”