FARMINGTON — The defense attorney for the 24-year-old man charged in the shooting death of his friend plans to enter a not guilty plea for what he calls a tragic accident.

Ryan J. Ouimet of Colts Neck, N.J., will appear today in Franklin Superior Court in Farmington, where he faces a manslaughter charge in the May 31 shooting.

His defense attorney Michael Cunniff said in a phone interview Tuesday that the judge will probably not ask for pleas when Ouiment is in court at 2 p.m. today.

“I think the circumstances that are known are that it was an unintentional death and the result of a tragic accident,” Cunniff said.

Andrew Holland, 23, of Cape Elizabeth died from a gunshot wound to the abdomen, according to the Maine Medical Examiner’s Office in Augusta.

Holland was shot with Ouimet’s handgun in an apartment just blocks from the University of Maine at Farmington campus, Maine State Police have said.

Holland and Ouimet both graduated from UMF in May and were in the apartment with Caroline Halloran, 23, of Acton, Mass., a 2010 UMF graduate.

Cunniff declined to elaborate on details of the shooting, saying he has not seen police reports or results of tests conducted for the investigation.

Test results on the handgun and a toxicology test on Holland have not been completed, according to state police and medical examiners.

Court documents identify the handgun as a Bersa model 383-A .380-caliber ACP pistol. The manslaughter charge accuses Ouimet of “recklessly or with criminal negligence” causing the death of Holland with the handgun, according to the complaint.

Two messages requesting comment on the shooting weren’t returned Tuesday by the Maine Attorney General’s Office. An administrative official there said a representative from the office of Deputy Attorney General William Stokes is expected to handle the case.

It will be several weeks before the investigation results are available to the defense, according to Cunniff, who is with the McCloskey, Mina & Cunniff law firm based in Portland and Bangor.