Slaying suspect faces trial with lawyer he tried to fire

PANAMA CITY — Facing the prospect of representing himself on trial next week, the suspect in a homicide decided to keep the attorney he had tried to fire.

Alvario McCray will stick with Walter Smith as his defense attorney after he failed to convince Judge Elijah Smiley that Smith had not made a good faith effort to defend him against accusations McCray killed a former partner in crime.

In 1996, McCray and Victor Murphy were convicted of cutting a woman’s throat in a robbery. The victim survived. Murphy was sentenced to 10 years and McCray was sentenced to 15.

Now McCray, 31, is accused of killing Murphy, whose body was discovered at an abandoned property in Panama City in June 2010, four months after McCray was released from prison. His trial on a manslaughter charge begins Monday.

McCray told Smiley Friday during a brief hearing that he had lost confidence in Smith because he had not entered evidence McCray thought would help his defense, such as an anonymous letter McCray received that basically thanked him for killing Murphy.

But the problem with the letter is that it has no evidentiary value unless they can find out who wrote it and convince them to testify, Smith said.

Murphy was arrested and charged in a rape in 2008, so Smith thought the victim in that case might have written the letter, but when he asked her she denied it. Smith checked out other possibilities as well but couldn’t find the letter’s author.

“We’ve done what we can to find somebody who may have had a motive and may have committed this homicide, but we’ve been unable to do that,” Smith told Smiley.

The whole process was just a formality anyway, Smith said, because McCray gave a full confession to law enforcement and even re-enacted how he killed Murphy at the scene of the crime for officers, who preserved the re-enactment on video.

Smith was successful in having McCray’s confession and re-enactment suppressed because police had gotten them after McCray requested a lawyer, according to a judicial order Smiley signed. But McCray told Smiley those statements to officers could be admitted for all he cares; he’ll be able to disprove any of it when he takes the witness stand to testify.

Smith also used colorful language to make derogatory statements about the victim that McCray said undermined his confidence in his attorney.

“If he don’t have no respect for the dead he definitely don’t have no respect for me because I’m a felon,” McCray told Smiley. “I don’t feel comfortable with him representing me if he thinks I’m guilty.”

Smith didn’t deny making the statements McCray attributed to him. In fact he reiterated his belief about the victim’s character in the same colorful language in court Friday. Murphy had several felony convictions.

Smiley couldn’t find any reason to replace Smith and gave McCray the choice of firing his attorney and representing himself or keeping Smith. The state had no obligation to provide him with another attorney, Smiley told him.

Jury selection for McCray’s trial is scheduled for Monday morning. If a jury can be seated by lunch, Smiley said he wants to get started with opening arguments and witness testimony in the afternoon.

Assistant State Attorney Larry Basford is prosecuting the case for the state. He declined to comment, but he had filed several notices seeking to have McCray designated a violent career criminal and a habitual felony offender, which would require the imposition of a stiffer sentence in the event he is convicted.