OSSIPEE, N.H. – A Conway man accused of shooting a 21-year-old from Maine in the abdomen last summer will be tried next week, barring a last-minute deal with prosecutors.

Matthew Lewis, 26, faces a second-degree assault trial in Ossipee County Superior Court starting Monday.

Benjamin Blasi of Brownfield, Maine, was found unconscious on his sister’s front lawn by a passing state trooper early on the morning of July 15, 2006. He was seriously injured.

Police and prosecutors say that earlier, one of Lewis’ friends, Eric Harris, said he was harassed and attacked by a group of people standing in front of the sister’s home. Harris got away, told Lewis and two other people what had happened, and drove with them to the home of Blasi’s sister, where an underage drinking party was in progress.

Lewis was charged with shooting Blasi in the melee that followed. Another friend of Harris, 22-year-old Matthew French, is charged with criminal threatening and faces a separate trial on May 28. Authorities say he pointed a handgun at another person; police later found loaded rifles, samurai swords, machetes and knives in his apartment.

The woman accused of driving the men to Blasi’s sister’s home, Rachel West, 25, faces charges of criminal liability for the conduct of another person.

Lewis has pleaded self-defense, saying Blasi rushed him and may have been armed. His defense attorney, Howard Clayman, has asked prosecutors to share photographs of brass knuckles and a large knife reportedly found 10 days later at a neighbor’s house.

French’s lawyer, Brad Helfer, has challenged statements by Harris, who initially told police Blasi’s friends had threatened to break beer bottles over his head, but later changed his story. He has refused follow-up interviews with lawyers, he said.

Helfer also wants to interview two teenagers from Brownfield who were arrested for underage drinking that night.