Local News in Brief : Lawyer of Defendant in Police Killing Removed
The attorney representing one of the four defendants accused of murdering Los Angeles Police Detective Thomas C. Williams was found on Monday to have a conflict of interest with the suspect and was taken off the case.
Duane Moody, 27, of Los Angeles, charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the Oct. 31 Canoga Park shooting, will be represented by James M. Epstein, who was appointed to the case Monday by Van Nuys Municipal Court Commissioner Patricia G. Schwartz.
Moody dismissed his previous lawyer, Douglas L. Young, after the prosecutor announced Friday that two of the witnesses who will testify against Moody are business associates of Young.
The two witnesses are making a movie about one of Young’s clients and claim to have overheard Moody say on Oct. 16 that he would kill the officer if he testified in the robbery trial of Daniel Steven Jenkins, 30.
Williams was killed hours after he testified in the San Fernando Superior Court trial.
Police maintain that Jenkins pulled the trigger but that he planned the killing with three other men: Moody, Voltaire Williams, 22, and Ruben A. (Tony) Moss, 24.
Moody’s preliminary hearing had been scheduled for Wednesday but was postponed because of the change of attorney.
The four defendants will return to Van Nuys Municipal Court on Dec. 12, when a date for a preliminary hearing will be set.
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