The suspect accused of killing an Arvada police officer early Sunday morning was a no-show in court Tuesday afternoon, prompting court observers to speculate that he is probably still in the hospital and unable to appear.

He was expected to hear his recommended charges via video chat, but there was no official explanation during the hearing in Jefferson County as to why Sonny Thomas Almanza, 31, did not appear.

“The defendant has not been made available to the court at this time,” is the only comment that  Jefferson County District Judge Thomas Vance made on the matter of Almanza’s non-appearance. “The defendant is simply not present.”

Almanza’s attorney, James O’Connor, said he hadn’t met his client. “I’m in a position that I don’t have any information,” O’Connor said over the video feed.

Vance put Almanza’s status on a no-bond hold and set the matter to come up for a daily review with Wednesday being the first time for that to occur.

When contacted by The Denver Gazette, First Judicial District spokesperson Amanda Gall said there would be “no further update at this time.”

Arvada police recommended eight charges for Almanza, including first-degree murder of a peace officer, with extreme indifference; murder after deliberation; illegal possession of a weapon by a previous offender; child abuse; and other counts.

Officer Dillon Vakoff, 27, was fatally shot around 1:40 a.m. Sunday while responding to a disturbance in the 6700 block of West 51st Avenue. Almanza and a third person were shot and wounded during the incident. Almanza’s mother Marie Alvarado of Arvada told The Denver Gazette that Almanza was shot several times and that he was treated at Denver Health Medical Center. She said that her son “didn’t know he shot a police officer.”

The probable cause arrest affidavit has been sealed in the case “to protect the ongoing investigation and witness interviews that have yet to take place,” Gall told The Denver Gazette.

It is unknown whether Almanza is still being treated for his injuries.

Arvada police are reeling from Vakoff’s death as he is the second Arvada officer to die in 15 months while in the line of duty. He will be laid to rest Friday morning at a public service at the Flatirons Community Church in Lafayette, according to the Colorado Fallen Hero Foundation.

Community members have turned out in force to pay their respects at the Arvada police headquarters, where Vakoff’s patrol car is parked on the sidewalk decorated with hundreds of bouquets, personal notes of thanks and even a toy police car. Vakoff was a three-year veteran of the force who was training to become a SWAT officer.