Accused killer’s lawyers go before judge
Lymon’s team could be fined for missing pretrial hearing
Davon Lymon, charged with killing an Albuquerque police officer in 2015, was in court again Friday, but this time it was his public defense attorneys facing the judge.
Lymon, hauled to court from a federal detention center, watched for about an hour as his public defenders — represented by their own attorneys — fought back against Assistant Attorney General Nicholas Gilbert’s attempt to have them pay a “massive fine” for skipping out on a Sept. 15 court hearing.
That hearing had been called by 2nd Judicial District Judge Briana Zamora to address some logistics in the murder case against Lymon, though the two sides believed the hearing was meant to deal with an unusual witness issue.
The witness, Savannah Garcia, was riding on the back of Lymon’s motorcycle on the October 2015 night when, prosecutors say, he fatally shot Albuquerque police officer Daniel Webster.
Lawyers hadn’t been able to take her deposition, an official statement prior to trial, so prosecutors succeeded in having her arrested and held in jail in order to get that statement. But she could be held for only a certain time period before being released.
That week of her detention, though, both of Lymon’s public defenders were off duty. Defender Heather LeBlanc was preparing to see her husband off for deployment, and defender Jeff Rein was on a vacation touring national parks and thus away from cellphone service.
So when the two didn’t show up for the Sept. 15 hearing, Gilbert called for the two public defenders to be held in contempt of court for their “refusal” to attend the hearing and given a “massive fine” or other punishment.
Zamora declined immediate sanctions and instead set a hearing for Friday, at which she and Lymon listened to why the public defenders missed the hearing.
Zamora on Friday asked the attorneys on both sides to limit their arguments to return to a “focus on the merits of the case.”
She pressed the public defenders, represented by their own attorneys, about why they didn’t file any requests for a delay in the hearing or a request to appear by telephone. The public defenders said their boss was supposed to file such documents.
Zamora said she will issue a ruling on possible contempt sanctions next week.
Lymon, through a public defender brought in specifically for the Friday hearing, said the contempt hearing did not make him want to switch attorneys. He faces firstdegree murder, tampering, firearm and other charges.