New attorney wanted in ‘hitman’ case
WEST CHESTER » The convoluted case of a Centre County man accused of trying to hire a hitman to kill an associate he incorrectly believed had been “ratting” him out took another twist Monday when the man asked the Chester County Common Pleas Court judge overseeing his case to fire his free attorney and have another public defender assigned to his case.
Defendant Christopher Pickard appeared before Judge David Bortner to address whether Assistant Public Defender James McMullen would continue to represent him at his upcoming pre-trial hearings, and at any trial in the future. Pickard said he could not continue to work with McMullen before the attorney declined to file a suppression motion Pickard thought essential to his defense.
“I should be able to submit an application to you,” to suppress the results of tape recordings in which Pickard is heard discussing an alleged plan to have someone kill the associate, in exchange for money and drugs,” Pickard, 32, of State College, told Bortner in a brief courtroom proceeding. “I do think I have suppression issues. He has taken that ability away from me.”
But McMullen stated that he was still willing and able to continue working on the case with Pickard and that he had already filed several motions on his behalf concerning evidentiary issues he felt were justified — just not the specific suppression motion Pickard wants.
“I can tell you that we have discussed various pre-trial issues,” that have merit, McMullen told Bortner, standing beside Pickard. “I do not feel I can’t represent him. He can represent himself if he likes. But I am going to file the motions I feel have merit.”
The Chester County Public Defender’s Office represents indigent people in criminal cases who apply and are found financially eligible. But once assigned to a particular attorney on the office staff, it does not allow its clients to pick and choose which attorney represents them.
In most proceedings, those who request a new attorney instead of the public defender assigned to their case are told by judges that they have the choice of hiring an attorney with their own money, or representing themselves in court. Requests to get a new public defender or court-appointed attorney are almost universally denied.
In the end Monday, Bortner rejected Pickard’s request for a new public defender and urged him to continue working with McMullen, who has been his attorney since he was arrested more than two years ago on heroin distribution charges. He noted that Pickard did have the option of acting as his own attorney, but that it was exceedingly rare for a judge to assign a new court-appointed attorney to a case because of disagreements over court and legal tactics.
“Just because you have a constitutional right to represent yourself, however, doesn’t mean its a great idea,” Bortner advised.
Pickard’s case began in August 2017 with a box of Vanilla Wafers.
According to a criminal complaint filed in the initial drug delivery case against Pickard, around 3 p.m. on Aug. 3, 2017, a Pennsylvania state trooper pulled over a Chevrolet Impala that he felt was traveling too close to the car ahead of it. The driver gave his name as James Pickard, but balked when asked if he would consent to a search of the car.
The trooper then called for assistance, in the form of a state police K-9 officer trained in drug detection. When the K-9 unit arrived, the dog alerted his handler to the presence of controlled substances in the car.
When the trooper opened the car’s trunk, he found inside it a black backpack. Opening it, he recovered a vanilla wafers box, he wrote in the complaint. Inside the box he found 427 white glassine bags of suspected heroin, all stamped “I’m Apache,” plus an additional 206 bags that also contained suspected heroin, but which were unstamped.
In a gray backpack on the car’s rear seat were another 170 blue glassine bags of suspected heroin stamped, “Power,” and two hypodermic needles. Under the right front seat was a wallet with a Pennsylvania ID card showing the name Christopher J. Pickard.
He was charged with possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and sent to Chester County Prison in lieu of bail.
While incarcerated, Pickard is alleged to have reached out to others to have a murder contract put out on a man he suspected had given state police information about the heroin in his car. The man had been a passenger in the car when Pickard was stopped. There was never any evidence that the man Pickard targeted had cooperated in any way with police. He was never harmed, and is presumably home in Centre County.
Within a week of Pickard’s arrest, on Aug. 11, 2017, Chester County Detectives learned that he was soliciting a hitman fro the prison. Pickard was given a phone number for a hitman, a number that was actually that of an undercover police officer.
Later, Pickard communicated with a girlfriend, Latrice Marie Harrington, using the prison’s phone service, which records all incoming and outgoing calls. According to a criminal complaint, over the next several days Pickard and Harrington discussed the planned “hit,” while Harrington then passed along instructions from Pickard to the “hitman,” and relayed information from the undercover officer to Pickard. Those calls were also recorded.
On Aug. 21, 2017, in the parking lot of a Walmart in State College, Harrington gave the undercover officer two guns — a Mossberg shotgun that had been sawed off to a shortened length, and a loaded .40 caliber pistol — along with $300. The following day, he reported to Harrington that he had “very good news,” and that Pickard “does not have to worry.”
Both Pickard and Harrington were arrested and charged with attempted first-degree murder and other charges. Harrington pleaded guilty to lesser charges in July and is awaiting sentencing.
Pickard remains in prison on $1 million bail awaiting trial on the murder for hire charges. Ironically, the heroin charges against him were withdrawn by the Chester County District Attorney’s Office after Bortner ruled that the original stop of his car by the state police on the turnpike was improper.
Had he not tried to engage in the murder scheme, he would likely have been released from prison. The attorney from the Public Defender’s Office who filed the suppression motion was McMullen.