MOULTRIE — A murder trial scheduled to begin this week was postponed after the defendant argued that the judge in the case previously had prosecuted him as an assistant district attorney. Superior Court Judge Brian McDaniel also was listed as a prosecution witness in the case against Kalvin Tyrone Suggs.

On Wednesday, McDaniel granted a defense motion to have another judge hear the case. It was not immediately known when the trial could be rescheduled.

McDaniel, in his third year on the bench, served as a prosecutor in Colquitt County from 2001-2014.

Suggs, 28, is accused of fatally shooting 22-year-old Tony Harrison at about 1:30 a.m. on March 1, 2015, outside a nightclub in the Sunset Plaza. At least three men exchanged gunfire, and several cars were struck by bullets, but no bystanders were injured during the shootout.

In August 2016, Suggs pleaded guilty to one count of involuntary manslaughter in Harrison’s death. As part of a plea arrangement, prosecutors were willing to dismiss charges related to the slaying, including felony murder, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.

Under the deal, prosecutors also dismissed unrelated charges of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony stemming from an April 2014 case that was pending prior to Suggs’ arrest in connection with Harrison’s death.

The maximum sentence he faced on the involuntary manslaughter charge was 10 years.

At the time of Suggs’ arrest in 2015, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which was the lead police agency in the slaying probe, said that Suggs and Harrison had been involved in an altercation that led to the shooting.

However, the plea arrangement fell apart after Suggs was accused of violating terms set when he was released the day after he entered his guilty plea last year.

Superior Court Judge Richard M. Cowart allowed the release based on the condition that Suggs wear an ankle monitor until he was sentenced.

Suggs previously served two and a half years of a three-year sentence handed down in April 2010 on a conviction for possession of marijuana with intent, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections. He was released in February 2013.

At the time he also was sentenced on charges of possession of cocaine and theft by receiving stolen property in a separate case.