Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Murder trial, not vacation, is lawyer's priority

The defense attorney wanted to visit Spain, but his client's trial already has been pushed back three times this year.

By JAMAL THALJI
Published August 11, 2005

DADE CITY - Defense attorney Bjorn Brunvand gave up before he even tried.

The lawyer had planned to ask Circuit Judge Lynn Tepper on Wednesday morning to delay Gary Steven Cannon's murder trial past its Sept. 12 start.

Brunvand was hoping to postpone the trial for a very personal reason: the chance to spend eight days in Barcelona, Spain, with his girlfriend, courtesy of her research firm. The trip starts Sept. 15.

He requested the hearing Tuesday. But when the attorney appeared before the judge Wednesday, he had already decided not to ask Tepper, thus sparing her from saying no.

"I'm no longer going to request a continuance," Brunvand said.

"I'm relieved," the judge said. "We have how many witnesses traveling from how many states?"

"A lot," said Jim Hellickson, the assistant state attorney who will try the case with Dade City prosecutor Phil Van Allen.

It was four years ago that Cannon was indicted in the 1997 kidnapping, rape and murder of 9-year-old Sharra Ferger. His first-degree murder trial has already been pushed back three times this year.

And last month, the trial of co-defendant Gary Elishi Cochran, once set for Sept. 26, was pushed back to December. The victim's 39-year-old uncle recently changed attorneys - his old lawyer said he almost slugged his now former client.

But the wheels are already in motion for the trial of Cannon, 24, who faces life in prison and is already serving a 15-year sentence for an unrelated robbery. Subpoenas have been sent. Witnesses are on their way. And the judge will tolerate no more delays.

Brunvand didn't waste the trip from his Clearwater office, though. He got the judge to approve an extra $1,800 to test DNA evidence and $500 to track down a defense witness in Tucson, Ariz., who might have shared a jail pod with Cannon.

That witness, whom the lawyer did not identify, could contradict the testimony of jailhouse witnesses who said Cannon admitted to the slaying.

"I just want to know what he has to say," Brunvand said.

Brunvand also is looking for another witness, a former employee of the defunct Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, who might have information about Cannon's visit to the Ferger household in Blanton weeks before the girl's body was found nearby.

The judge helped him find that witness, too.

"I saw her at a wedding reception," Tepper said.

[Last modified August 11, 2005, 00:43:15]