The mystery of who shot a prospective witness in a Fresno murder-for-hire case deepened Wednesday, as police and prosecutors kept a tight lid on how and where Joe Luis Yzaguirre Jr. was shot – and who might have done it.

He was supposed to testify at the trial of businessman Daljit Singh, who is accused of seeking a hit man to kill Rama Kant Dawar, a former partner in a limousine business.

The murder-for-hire trial was scheduled to begin Wednesday in Fresno County Superior Court. But because of the shooting a day earlier, Judge Gary D. Hoff delayed the trial until the end of January.

Singh's attorney, Anthony Capozzi, said he believes Yzaguirre engineered his own shooting Tuesday to stay off the witness stand.

"If someone wanted to kill him, they would have killed him," Capozzi said.

Capozzi said Yzaguirre either had someone shoot him or was shot by someone connected to another case in which he worked as a police informant.

He described Yzaguirre as "a devious and manipulative person."

Singh, who has been in jail since April, had no involvement in Yzaguirre's shooting, Capozzi said.

Singh's wife, Rachel, said it would be unfair to blame the shooting on her husband, who wants to go to trial and prove he's innocent of the murder-for-hire scheme.

She said Yzaguirre's shooting appears suspicious.

"It sounds like he waited just long enough for the gunman to get away before he called police," she said. "You can tell it was a set-up."

Yzaguirre, 44, of Fresno, was shot in the torso, according to Fresno County Emergency Medical Service dispatch records. He called for help from a vacant Clovis home at 11:04 a.m. Tuesday and was taken to Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno.

Hospital officials on Wednesday would not provide a condition report for Yzaguirre or confirm that he's still a patient there. The only family member who could be reached Wednesday, an uncle, would not comment about his nephew.

Also unclear on Wednesday was where Yzaguirre was shot. Clovis police referred all questions to the Fresno County District Attorney's Office because the shooting involves people in an ongoing trial.

The District Attorney's Office also declined comment, spokeswoman Sonia De La Rosa said.

Neighbors near the vacant home at 2435 Herndon Ave., where emergency workers found Yzaguirre, said they never heard any shots fired Tuesday.

Warren Bean said he was home with his dog in an apartment that overlooks the house and never heard any gunfire – even though his apartment's windows were open.

The arriving ambulance didn't draw his attention, because he lives a block from Clovis Community Medical Center and hears sirens all the time. He didn't know anything had happened until more than 30 minutes after Yzaguirre called for help.

When he saw police cars across the street, "I thought they were doing a felony stop," Bean said.

Cassie German, Bean's neighbor, said she noticed the white van Yzaguirre had been in. "The way the van was parked, it looked like it was parked quickly," German said.

The scene at the home suggested that Yzaguirre was injured before he entered. Small blood droplets dotted the entry outside the front door and led inside.

Yzaguirre apparently has no connection to the home. It was last occupied in 2008, according to Clovis city billing records.

The property was bought in 2004 for $590,000 and is zoned for a commercial project. It's owned by Ziyar Latif and Nasima Trustees of Fresno, city documents say.

According to a police affidavit, detectives initially were wary of using Yzaguirre as an informant because of his extensive criminal record that includes convictions for burglary, drug sales, grand theft and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Yzaguirre secretly recorded Singh talking about wanting to hire a hit man to kill Dawar, police said. Singh wanted Dawar dead when a lawsuit was decided in Dawar's favor, police said.

But Capozzi said Yzaguirre set up Singh to put him out of business. Singh and Yzaguirre have competing limousine services in Fresno, he said.

During Singh's preliminary hearing in June, Yzaguirre testified that he gave a gun to Singh that was to be used to kill Dawar, a detail previously unknown to police. Fresno police detective George Imirian testified that he first learned that Yzaguirre gave the gun to Singh during the hearing. Before then, police had said Singh gave Yzaguirre a stolen gun that was to be used to kill his former business partner.