DALTON, Ga. — The trial of a Dalton man charged with the murder of two women he lived with is expected to begin on Sept. 9 with jury selection after the prosecution and defense said they are ready in Whitfield County Superior Court on Monday.

The accused, Michael Brandon Townsend, 40, was not in Superior Court Judge Scott Minter’s courtroom on Monday. He has been in jail without bond since his arrest in January and has pleaded not guilty. District Attorney Bert Poston said in May that prosecutors and the defense had failed to reach a plea deal. An order by Minter denying a motion by the defense that Poston be recused from the case indicated the defense will use an insanity defense. A date for a hearing for motions before the trial will be set.

Townsend faces four counts of murder, two counts of aggravated assault and two counts of aggravated battery in the deaths of Krystal Spainhour, 44, and her mother Judy Potts, 72. The three lived together at 234 Tanglewood Drive N.E. off of Cleveland Highway. On the night of the women’s deaths on Jan. 10, Townsend called 911 and told an operator, “I just lost my mind … ” and said he had choked both women, but the indictments against him outlined a more violent series of events.

According to the indictments, Townsend caused the deaths of Spainhour and Potts each “by strangling her, striking and stomping her repeatedly in the face and upper torso …” In the assault indictments, Townsend is said to have used “his hand on and applied pressure to her throat …” of both women.

The aggravated battery indictments say with respect to Spainhour, Townsend “caused bodily harm … by seriously disfiguring her body when he punched and stomped on her face and upper torso and cut her throat …” With respect to Potts, he “caused bodily harm … by seriously disfiguring her body when he punched and stomped on her face and upper torso, cut her throat and stabbed her in the throat and torso …”

The defense sought to have Poston recused because he had interviewed Townsend at the jail 48 hours after the incidents and would have a “potential conflict as a necessary witness.”

“The interview did not discuss the events surrounding the homicide, but defendant did make statements about previous mental health treatment for his depression,” Minter wrote in his order. “Defendant claims these discussions made Mr. Poston a necessary witness to the defendant’s state of mind as it relates to his culpable intent during the crime.”

“The court disagrees,” the order states. “Mr. Poston is not a necessary witness because other witnesses would provide the same facts.”