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Attorney drops out before trial

With a courtroom quarrel as a backdrop, a circuit judge assigns a new lawyer for Gary Cochran.

By JAMAL THALJI
Published July 29, 2005

DADE CITY - After four years preparing for a capital murder trial two months away, attorney Sam Williams said he can no longer defend Gary Elishi Cochran because of "irreconcilable differences."

From the screaming and shouting in courtroom A on Thursday morning, that's an understatement.

"We had a little physical altercation," the 6-foot-3 lawyer said of last week's jailhouse meeting with his 5-foot-5 client. "Candidly, if it hadn't been for a guard coming in, I would have dropped him."

It got more irreconcilable after that.

Cochran, hands shackled to his waist, feet chained together, stood up mumbling and muttering.

Bailiffs rushed in.

Cochran turned to profanity.

"Excuse me?" Circuit Judge Lynn Tepper said. "I heard that!"

One bailiff told Cochran to shut up; the other pushed the prisoner back into his seat.

"You shut up!" Cochran told the bailiff.

"Back off . . . I'll handle this!" Tepper told the deputies. "Mr. Cochran, don't ever curse my bailiffs! Don't interrupt my court!"

"Don't tell me to shut up!" Cochran said.

"I'm not telling you to shut up!," the judge said. "I'm telling you not to interrupt."

"He don't have the right to drop me," Cochran said of his court-appointed attorney, "'cause I'm going to drop him!"

The judge talked down Cochran, who soon found himself facing five Pasco sheriff's deputies.

"It's not the court's preference to release Mr. Williams," Tepper said, "but I don't see any choice."

The judge let co-counsel John Swisher, who Williams said has "good rapport" with Cochran, take over. Tepper also appointed St. Petersburg attorney Lane Lastinger to the defense weeks before the now moot Sept. 26 trial date.

Thursday's ruckus meant yet another delay in the Sharra Ferger case, the 9-year-old Pasco County girl kidnapped, raped and killed in 1997.

Stabbed and bitten, she was found in a field near her Blanton home. Weeks later neighbor Dale Morris was arrested, then exonerated, in the crime.

It took four years for another arrest. In 2001 Cochran and Gary Steven Cannon were indicted for first-degree murder. Cannon, just shy of 18 when the crime took place and now 24, goes on trial Sept. 12, facing life in prison if convicted.

Swisher said he hopes to go to trial in December. Still before the court is whether Cochran, 39, is mentally retarded, a determination the defense hopes will spare him the death penalty.

The State Attorney's Office objected to Williams' late departure, saying he's the best option. The state is worried the last-minute switch in attorneys could help Cochran appeal a possible conviction.

"We could end up trying this case again," said co-prosecutor Jim Hellickson.

The attorney/client relationship went downhill fast July 20, when Williams went to the Pasco County jail for a 10:15 a.m. meeting with Cochran.

According to the Sheriff's Office, after five minutes a deputy posted outside the room heard a commotion. The inmate was loud, stood up and knocked his chair over, the agency said. The deputy ordered the inmate out of the room.

"I'm done with you, you're fired," Cochran told the attorney as he left. "Don't come back here."

The decision to shackle prisoners is left up to the attorneys, said the Sheriff's Office, and Williams doesn't remember if Cochran was restrained.

Not only does Williams stand 10 inches taller than his former client, he also outweighs him.

That afternoon, he filed a motion to withdraw.

What sparked it? Williams wouldn't say. He was reluctant to even discuss the altercation in open court, afraid of violating attorney-client privilege.

"I was discussing a portion of his case that perhaps Mr. Cochran didn't want to hear," Williams said. "I can't be in a situation where I'm in the middle of a trial and, for lack of a better term, I get sucker punched."

Cochran shot back in open court: "No lawyer is going to tell me what he told me."

The judge asked if there were any way she could change either man's mind. "You can't change me, your honor," Cochran said.

Could this be just a ploy for Cochran to delay his trial again, to set up an appeal if he's convicted?

"I have no idea what goes on inside his mind," co-prosecutor Phil Van Allen said.

Cochran, accompanied by four deputies, left the courtroom without incident. Later, bailiffs said he apologized. Before he left, Tepper promised him this:

"Mr. Cochran we're going to try your case at the end of the year," the judge said. "It's been a long time coming."

[Last modified July 29, 2005, 00:51:17]