INDIANAPOLIS – The man accused of a triple murder in Lawrence appeared in court Tuesday afternoon while his alleged accomplice is still at large.

Malik Shaw, 24, entered the courtroom wearing a red prison uniform. That indicates an inmate accused of murder. Tuesday’s hearing was for Shaw to inform Marion Superior Court Judge Marshelle Dawkins Broadwell whether she had retained an attorney.

Judge: “Are you able to hire your own lawyer?”

Shaw: “Working on it. But from now on a public defender.”

Judge: “Are you requesting that I appoint the public defender agency to represent you?

The judge appointed Shaw as a public defender. His arrest for the triple murder also puts him in violation of his probation from a conviction last year. Shaw pleaded guilty to unlawfully carrying a weapon and possession of marijuana. He served five days in jail under the plea agreement.

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Now Shaw is accused of shooting and killing 19-year-old Londyn Coleman, 19-year-old Aaliyah Wortman, and 27-year-old Spencer Lawson. Their bodies were found near a car in a parking lot at the Jamestowne Apartment Community on the afternoon of April 12.

A maintenance man heard the gunshots and chased two suspects, even shooting them with his own gun.

RELATED: Maintenance man says he fired shots chasing suspects in Lawrence triple murder

Court records say Shaw ran to a sports bar at 46th Street and Post Road and paid a man in the parking lot $200 to take him home. A phone left in the suspect’s car at the crime scene helped police use social media to link Shaw to the man described by witnesses and captured on surveillance video in the area. Police arrested Shaw as he was leaving a home near where the man dropped him off around 25th Street and Post Road.

Shaw’s next court date is June 3. Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears said last week that police had good leads on the second suspect in the shooting. But no one else has been arrested yet.