HOULTON (AP) – The arraignment of a Presque Isle man charged in the beating death of his supervisor at a Caribou coffee shop has been delayed after his attorney withdrew from the case.

Nineteen-year-old Christopher Shumway was scheduled to be arraigned in Aroostook County Superior Court on Friday on murder, robbery and gross sexual assault charges.

He is charged with beating and kicking 20-year-old Erin Sperrey on Jan. 2 and leaving her to die in the Tim Hortons restaurant bathroom while he waited on customers.

Stephen Smith, a Bangor attorney who represented Shumway, told Justice E. Allen Hunter that he needed to withdraw from the case. He offered no reason for the withdrawal and left the courtroom without comment.

Hunter said that he would continue Shumway’s arraignment “on a day-to-day basis” until a new attorney could be found to represent him.

Aroostook County District Attorney Neale Adams said Smith represented Shumway and another client who is in the Aroostook County Jail, and that a conflict arose from that situation. Officials with the Attorney General’s office asked the Adams’ office to stand in for them at the arraignment.

Shumway sat shackled in the courtroom with his head down on Friday, never raising his eyes while many of Sperrey’s family members sat nearby.

Sperrey’s mother, Johna Lovely, later expressed frustration at the slow pace of the proceedings. Outside of the courthouse, she said that she found it unbelievable that taxpayers were footing the bill to feed and clothe Shumway in jail while the case dragged on.

“I can’t feed and clothe my daughter,” Lovely said, wearing a purple bracelet with her daughter’s name on it.

Shumway allegedly had a crush on Sperrey and had asked her out on dates several times, but that she had gently rebuffed him, members of her family have said.