Ouster of top lawyer sought
Defense: New county attorney has a conflict
Attorneys for Steven Jones, accused of shooting four NAU students in 2015, have asked the court to disqualify the Coconino County Attorney’s Office from his October retrial because of a perceived conflict of interest.
William Ring was elected Coconino County attorney in November, one year after Jones was charged with firstdegree murder and aggravated assault in an on-campus shooting that killed one student and wounded three others.
When he ran for office, Ring was an employee of the Flagstaff law firm Aspey, Watkins
& Diesel. Attorneys for that firm made more than $41,000 in donations to Ring’s 2016 campaign and nearly $1,000 more in in-kind contributions for a fundraising event.
In June, Ring’s former employers at that law firm filed a civil lawsuit against Jones and his family on behalf of the parents of Colin Brough, who was killed in the October 2015 shooting, and Nick Piring and Nick Prato, two of the three students wounded.
The lawsuit claims that Jones’ father, Warren, was negligent in teaching his son how to use firearms.
Two of the civil attorneys, Louis Diesel and Frederick Aspey, were frequent observers at Jones’ trial this spring, which ended in a hung jury in May. It was no secret that they intended to represent the victims in potential civil proceedings.
In a motion filed last week in Coconino County Superior Court, Jones’ attorney Joshua Davidson claimed that Ring and his office were conflicted because his former law firm stands to gain money from a civil lawsuit that depends on Jones being found guilty of murder and assault.
The motion alleges further that county prosecutors shared interviews they conducted with Warren Jones for the criminal trial with the attorneys in the civil suit.
The motion also suggests that prosecutors named Warren Jones as a potential witness in that trial only to profit from his interviews. Ultimately, Warren Jones was not called to the witness stand and did not testify.
Steven Jones is charged with first-degree murder in the October 2015 shooting death of Brough during a fight at the edge of the NAU campus in fall 2015. He also faces aggravated assault charges in the wounding of Piring, Prato and a fourth student, Kyle Zientek.
Jones went to trial April 4. Over the course of three weeks, prosecutors and defense attorneys brought 37 witnesses to the stand, including the surviving victims and Jones himself.
Jones claimed in trial that he fired his gun in self-defense. Prosecutors argued his actions were premeditated. Davidson and McCowan accused prosecutor Ammon Barker of misconduct for statements he made in closing arguments.
A jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision on a verdict, and a mistrial was declared. A new trial has been scheduled for Oct. 10.
If Judge Dan Slayton grants the motion to disqualify the County Attorney’s Office, that date might get pushed back.
The wrongful death lawsuit against Jones and his family was filed by Diesel in Coconino County on June 30. It alleges that Steven Jones violated several state statutes in the campus shooting. It also points to Jones’ father as negligent in training his son. The elder Jones is said to be a former National Rifle Association instructor.
“As a result of Warren Jones’ … negligence, plaintiffs have been damaged in an amount to be proven at trial.”
Neither Davidson nor his co-counsel, Burges McCowan, would comment on the motion or the lawsuit against their client.
Ring and Diesel were not immediately available for comment.