BLOUNTVILLE — A Kingsport double-murder suspect set for a February trial has been appointed new defense counsel for the fourth time.
Attorney T. Wood "Woody" Smith of Greeneville was appointed Thursday to represent Leslie Ware Jr., 34, in Sullivan County Criminal Court.
Ware is set for a Feb. 11, 2013, trial on two counts each of premeditated first-degree murder and felony murder for his alleged role in the Nov. 18, 2005, robbery and execution-style shooting deaths of Jeffrin Nolan, 27, and Terrance Alexander, 21, inside the former Solé candle shop on Myrtle Street in Kingsport, owned by Nolan. Ware is also set to be tried on one count each of especially aggravated robbery, criminal conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery, criminal conspiracy to possess more than 26 grams of cocaine with intent to sell or deliver, possession of over 26 grams of cocaine for resale, and maintaining a dwelling where controlled substances are used or sold.
Smith replaced Robert Jessee, who had filed a motion to withdraw in July after Ware filed a complaint with the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility seeking his removal. No specific information about that complaint was immediately available.
Jessee had been appointed to replace attorney Steve Finney after Ware's trial ground to a halt Jan. 27 when Finney was permitted to withdraw after he accused Ware of conspiring to have him bring marijuana into the Sullivan County jail. At the outset of that trial, Finney had Don Spurrell as co-counsel, but Spurrell had volunteered to withdraw after the state agreed to cease its pursuit of the death penalty.
Finney and Spurrell had replaced Jim Bowman and Stacy Street after Ware allegedly conspired to have their investigator bring buprenorphine into the jail. Officers there allegedly discovered the drug concealed in photographs supplied by a Gretchen Rochowiak under the pretext that they supported mitigation.
Finney told Judge Jerry Beck his wife had purchased clothes for Ware to wear during his court appearances, but one day he was "informed" that "shoes and a shirt" for Ware were coming "from his (Ware's) family."
Before putting the shoes in his car on the morning of Jan. 27, Finney said he inspected them and found marijuana tucked beneath the sole of one. Finney said he checked the shoes because of what happened with Bowman and Street.
A few days before Jessee's appointment to the case, Ware wrote about Bowman, Street, Finney and Spurrell in a letter addressed to Beck that was filed Feb. 6.
In the letter, Ware said Street and Bowman were "good lawyers," but they "didn't have my best interest at hand." He cited that they had tried to convince him to take a plea deal that would have meant life without parole -- at that time he still faced a possible death penalty outcome if convicted.
Ware went on to say that "things didn't work out well with them because of that and the contraband situation, which I had a role in..." He said his actions were "wrong" and "stupid" and blamed a desire to "escape reality" because "I had the death penalty over my head."
Regarding Spurrell and Finney, Ware said Spurrell was "motivated to do what he could," but Finney "kept telling me I would lose" and, in an effort to convince him to take a "plea of 40 years," had called his mother to "try to convince her to convince me" to accept it.
Also in the letter, Ware expressed concern about receiving a fair trial and asked Beck to appoint an attorney who "will fight for me."