By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

A sentencing hearing for a 24-year-old Birmingham man convicted of shooting and killing an Alabaster man in 2011 has been continued to mid-March after a scheduling issue delayed the sentencing on March 3.

Shelby County Circuit Court Judge Dan Reeves originally was scheduled to sentence Birmingham resident Daveon L. Cathey at 1:30 p.m. on March 3, but a scheduling misunderstanding meant several witnesses subpoenaed to attend the hearing were not at the courthouse on March 3.

A group of Cathey’s family members and several prosecution-called witnesses were gathered at the courthouse on March 3, but Cathey’s defense attorneys were not present. Cathey’s defense attorneys were planning to proceed with the hearing on March 4, not March 3, Reeves told about 10 of Cathey’s family members and members of the media gathered in the courtroom.

As a result of the scheduling conflict, Cathey’s sentencing is now scheduled for Thursday, March 13 sometime between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., Reeves said. The exact time for the sentencing hearing will be posted in court documents in the coming days, Reeves said.

Cathey previously was scheduled to be sentenced the afternoon of Jan. 28, but his sentencing was postponed until March 3 because of a winter storm. In December, Reeves delayed the sentencing hearing until Jan. 28 after Cathey’s defense attorneys said they had not had time to subpoena witnesses to the hearing.

Cathey has been found guilty of shooting and killing 34-year-old Alabaster resident Jonathan Williams at Williams’ house in Alabaster. The shooting happened at about 10:15 p.m. when Cathey shot Williams while he was exiting his vehicle at his residence in the 100 block of 11th Avenue Southeast in Alabaster. Alabaster Police Chief Curtis Rigney previously said the shooting happened during a robbery.

After Williams was shot, he was transported to UAB Hospital, where he later died.

Alabaster police officers worked with members of the U.S. Marshal Service Fugitive Task Force to bring 24-year-old Daveon L. Cathey into custody at about 12:50 p.m. on Sept. 10, 2011, in the 13000 block of Highway 25 in Calera.

Cathey faces up to life in prison for the crime.