When he appeared in court on April 23, Joshua Asher pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted murder.

On July 13, his attorney told the court that Asher wants to withdraw that plea and have a jury trial instead.

Asher, 32, was scheduled to be sentenced on July 31. That date is still on the court calendar as Brown Circuit Court Judge Judith Stewart considers Asher’s request.

Asher is accused of firing a gun at two women until the gun was empty nearly two years ago. The incident happened on Lucas Hollow Road on Aug. 23, 2016. One of the victims was his ex-girlfriend, Angel Mack; the other was a friend of hers, Nicole Hillen.

Asher told police he didn’t intend to hurt his ex-girlfriend. However, the women told police that he said, “You’re going to die.”

Mack was shot in her right thigh and foot. Hillen sustained a surface gunshot wound to the chest. Both survived.

Along with the two counts of attempted murder, both Level 1 felonies, Asher also was charged with two counts of aggravated battery, Level 3 felonies; domestic battery, a Class A misdemeanor; torturing or mutilating a vertebrate animal, a Level 6 felony; and invasion of privacy, a Class A misdemeanor.

Police said Asher also shot a dog in the leg.

In court on July 13, public defender Jacob Moore said that Asher didn’t fully understand what pleading guilty meant, specifically the concept of “specific intent.” “It confuses many attorneys,” Moore said.

After thinking about the guilty plea, Asher felt that “he no longer felt he had specific intent” to murder his victims, Moore said.

Speaking to police after the shooting, Asher said that he knew what he did was wrong, and that a friend had tried to talk him out of doing it before he went to the home, the police report said. He said he was upset because he believed Mack was seeing another man.

This isn’t the first time Asher has wanted to change his plea. In December 2016, Asher rejected his plea agreement and asked for a jury trial.

The court then granted four continuances for that trial. The trial date was finally set for April 30, 2018.

A week before the trial was to start, Asher pleaded guilty to both counts of attempted murder and the court accepted his plea. But then he told a probation officer that he wanted to withdraw that plea and he wanted a new public defender.

Prosecutor Ted Adams objected to the plea being withdrawn again.

He said that through the plea process, Asher understood he was pleading guilty to both Level 1 felonies, including the specific intent to kill on both counts. Asher said that he intended to shoot both Mack and Hillen, the prosecutor said.

“Essentially, the defendant changed his mind,” Adams wrote. That is not “a fair and just reason” to withdraw the plea, he argued.

Preparing again for a jury trial would be discriminatory against the state, Adams wrote. Since the first change of plea hearing, two of the state’s witnesses have died: The landlord who was the first person Asher spoke to after the incident, and another person who lived on Lucas Hollow Road who heard the incident and called 911.

The victims continue to suffer as well, Adams said.

Since the incident, Asher has contacted Mack 14 times, which resulted in another criminal case, he said. He also provided evidence that Asher had been trying to get a third party to beat up Mack.

The incident already has caused the victims substantial stress, which may result in them not being able to testify, Adams said. Delaying this case’s resolution is an act of “psychological warfare,” he said.

Both women have attended the two guilty plea hearings, only to find out Asher had withdrawn those pleas.

“The victims have continually asked the Brown County Prosecutor’s Office: Where are their respective rights?” Adams wrote.

“The victims are losing faith in justice.”

Moore said that the root of the victims’ stress is the shooting itself and not the withdrawal of the guilty plea. The victims have already given their depositions, and if something were to happen to prevent them from testifying in a trial, their testimonies are preserved, he said.

Moore said “it’s very credible” for a person to be unsure about what was going on in their mind during an incident like that because of adrenaline.

Mack shared her side of the story with court in writing: “Joshua E. Asher pointed his firearm at my head while I was attempting to enter my home and stated I was going to die; he pulled the trigger, however, he was fortunately out of ammunition. Had there been one more bullet in the gun, Joshua E. Asher would have killed me that day,” she wrote.

“Now I feel unstable, anxious, confused, unsure and lost. I am no longer the person I once was and who I want to be,” she wrote. “I did not choose to be a victim and I am struggling. Joshua E. Asher took my old life away from me.”

Asher is being held in the Brown County jail on $2 million bond.

If convicted of all seven charges, he could face between 20 and 116 years in prison and up to $60,000 in fines.