Appeals court delays trial of Jacksonville man facing Death Row in 65-year-old woman's killing
The 1st District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee has indefinitely delayed the start of a death-penalty murder trial that was scheduled to begin Monday in Jacksonville.
The appeals court is trying to determine whether the office of Public Defender Matt Shirk must be removed as the defense attorneys for Randall Deviney, 25, and postponed his trial while it sorts through arguments in the case. Even if Shirk’s office remains on the case, the appeals court’s decision means it will be months until the trial.
Shirk’s office says it has a conflict with Deviney and another client, likely fellow death-penalty defendant Donald James Smith, and said it could no longer represent Deviney or Smith in their upcoming trials.
One of the defendants may have gained incriminating information on the other during their time on Death Row, although Shirk’s office has refused to confirm that. Deviney is accused of killing 65-year-old neighbor Delores Futrell and Smith, 58, is accused of abducting, raping and killing 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle.
The offices of 4th Circuit State Attorney Angela Corey and Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi are arguing that there is no conflict because Corey’s office has no interest in talking to either man about any information they have on the other. Circuit Judge Mallory Cooper, who will be the trial judge in both cases, agreed and said earlier this week that Deviney’s criminal trial would begin Jan. 5.
But Shirk’s office appealed Cooper’s ruling and asked the appellate judges to delay the case and then remove them from representing both men.
The appeals court will hear oral arguments on this issue Thursday in Tallahassee.
Cooper previously agreed to delay Smith’s trial, originally scheduled to begin Jan. 20, last month after defense attorneys said they weren’t ready to go to trial. Cooper said based on her schedule the earliest he could now go on trial was May.
That means Deviney’s trial will also likely be delayed until at least May and possibly longer if new lawyers have to take over the case.
If the public defender is removed from the cases, they will go to either the Office of Regional Conflict Counsel or to private attorneys being paid by the state. Smith and Deviney have both been declared indigent and can’t pay for attorneys out of their own pocket.
Deviney was previously convicted of Futrell’s murder in 2010 when Cooper sentenced him to death. It was overturned by the Florida Supreme Court in February 2013 when Justices ruled that police should have stopped questioning Deviney after he repeatedly told them he was done speaking.
He is accused of slitting Futrell’s throat with a fish filleting knife in her Westside home on Bennington Drive. She used to fix meals for Deviney, paid him to do odd jobs and spoke with him about troubles in his youth.
http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2...ow-65-year-old
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