Another delay sought in Brian Horn murder case
Judge will hold hearing Wednesday on the latest motion for continuance
By Vickie Welborn
The Shreveport Times
MANSFIELD — As if the twists and turns of the pending capital murder case of a DeSoto Parish man accused of killing a Stonewall boy almost four years ago can’t get any more bizarre, another hiccup has arisen to threaten next month’s trial date.
The major delay now sought by the defense comes two weeks before the scheduled start of jury selection in East Baton Rouge Parish. District Judge Robert Burgess will take up the matter in a hearing at 10 a.m. Wednesday. Part of the session is expected to be held behind closed doors.
At issue is an allegation that lead defense counsel, Daryl Gold, of Shreveport, has failed to follow prescribed guidelines and adequately prepare for trial, considered a “violation of both his ethical and professional responsibility” that subject him to “potential sanctions or disbarment by the Louisiana Supreme Court,” states a motion filed Friday seeking yet another continuance.
The Louisiana Public Defender Board is decertifying Gold as lead counsel for indigents in capital cases, according to the court filing, and two new attorneys are being recommended to replace him. Their estimated time needed for trial preparation ranges from 10 to 14 months.
Gold, who is in the process of withdrawing from the case, said he could not comment on the allegations until the matter has been resolved. If he resigns, Gold would be the third attorney from the defense team to do so in as many years.
DeSoto Parish District Attorney Richard Johnson said he will vigorously oppose any delay in the trial. “Even if it’s one day, we will oppose,” he added.
Getting the case to trial has already taken longer than any others in recent history in DeSoto Parish. March 30 will mark the fourth anniversary of the death of Justin M. Bloxom, 12. Authorities say the North DeSoto Middle School student was abducted by Horn, 37, of Keachi, who portrayed himself as a young girl via text messages.
Horn, a twice-convicted sex offender, picked up Bloxom, who was at a friend’s house in Stonewall, and drove until his Action Taxi cab ran out of fuel on U.S. Highway 171 near Stonewall, DeSoto Parish sheriff’s investigators said. Bloxom’s body was found hours later in a shallow pool of water in a wooded area next to the highway where the disabled cab sat until Horn retrieved more fuel.
If convicted, Horn will face the death penalty as a possible sentence.
The case has been fraught with delays. Two previous attorneys, Elton Richey and Ross Owen, have resigned; Richey in November 2011 and Owen in February 2011.
Richey has since returned to work for the Capital Assistance Project of Louisiana, the separate agency that contracts with the state public defender’s board to represent indigent defendants facing the death penalty. However, Richey and CAPOLA chief counsel Richard Goorley provided the court with affidavits listing their case load and giving reasons why they could not be ready for trial March 11.
Pre-trial hearings have been scattered over the past few years as evidentiary issues have been debated with the testimony of expert witnesses. The defense on many other occasions has begged for more time, including the request of a mitigation specialist, which was turned down, for up to a year to interview over 400 people she said whose input was needed to pull together a story of Horn’s life.
At least three trial dates were set and refixed. Last year, Burgess set a Feb. 3 trial date and earnest preparations were underway until late January when another delay was granted after new evidence surfaced.
During those trial preparations, investigators were able to positively match a fingerprint lifted from the taxi car passenger side window to Bloxom. Until then, there had been no direct evidence placing Bloxom inside of Horn’s cab. A relatively new computer software program aided in making the fingerprint comparison.
Gold called the evidence a “game changer” for his defense strategy. To allow the defense to work that information into their case, Burgess pushed back the trial’s start date until March 11.
Included in the new motion for continuance are affidavits from James T. Dixon Jr. of the state public defender’s board and two attorneys, Kerry Cuccia and Dwight Doskey, of CAPOLA, who are being substituted as counsel for Horn. All agree it would take a “reasonable length” of 10 to 14 months to get up to speed.
In his affidavit, Cuccia notes the complexity of the case, having over 3,000 pages of discovery and 790 pages of testimony. In the guilt-innocence phase of the trial, the prosecution is likely, he said, to call 47 witnesses, including 19 law enforcement officers, three experts and 24 lay witnesses. Nine people are listed as victim witnesses for the penalty phase. The defense’s mitigation records are about 10,000 pages, reaching back into Horn’s early childhood.
“It is my opinion that replacement counsel would fall below an objective standard of reasonableness under prevailing professional norms if they were not given sufficient time to thoroughly review and absorb the mountain of evidence in this case,” Cuccia wrote.
In addition, Cuccia wrote the lead counsel also must devote time to build a relationship of trust with the defendant. “He must understand the client and his life history. He must learn enough about the client to convey a sense of truly caring what happens to him.”
Establishing a relationship with the defendant is also enumerated among eight responsibilities of lead counsel cited in the motion for continuance. All are part of the American Bar Association standards adopted by the state public defenders board in death penalty cases.
Also listed are quality representation of the defendant, assembling and performance of the defense team, investigation of the case, assertion of all legal claims, seeking an agreed upon disposition of the case, overall trial preparation and whether all mitigation investigation has been adequately completed and meeting with all experts.
Cuccia additionally outlines in detail the importance of adhering to ABA guidelines that emphasize the importance of counsel learning the defense strategy. It’s important, he said to develop a theory of defense, especially when a client’s life is at stake, as to the guilty and mitigation, which is the part of the trail where information about a client’s background is introduced to sway a jury away from the death penalty.
Mitigation information and expert advice must be incorporated into the defense strategy even from jury selection, he said.
“Seminars in capital defense instruct that counsel who does not view the entire capital trial, from jury selection through penalty phase, in this holistic manner cannot be effective. Efforts to obtain an acquittal, or at the very least, a life sentence, must begin with the examination of the first potential juror,” he wrote.
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