After more than 6 months on the job, the lawyer for murder suspect Sgt. Scott Ansman of the National Guard pulled out this morning — to the dismay of more people than the 35-year-old defendant.
From the sparse courtroom spectator gallery, two anxious mothers — of the defendant and the victim — measured every word as attorney Richard Wynn informed Judge James R. Dabney of his decision.
As the trial date for Sgt. Ansman was creeping almost within sight, Mr. Wynn explained that his two-city office was carrying too heavy of a caseload to fairly represent one more client.
Was there another explanation?
Background
Today’s hearing originally was called for last Friday when Mr. Wynn was to disclose whether Sgt. Ansman, incarcerated since last Aug. 24, had the means to pay his lawyer’s fees.
The determination was delayed a week, apparently because it was insufficiently clear whether the suspect was financially capable.
Such an explanation was not acknowledged this morning, merely the imposing caseload.
Mr. Wynn’s withdrawal annoyed Dep. Dist. Atty. Joe Markus, who told the newspaper that after representing the defendant for more than half a year, Mr. Wynn should have figured out earlier whether his client was going to pay him.
And then there was the nearly identical portrait of the suffering mothers of the principals.
Motherly Anguish
At the westerly end of Judge Dabney’s courtroom, Martha Lou Harris, the mother of JoAnn Crystal Harris, 29 years old and pregnant, who was battered to death on a Friday afternoon last August inside the National Guard Armory just as Fiesta La Ballona was getting ready to launch a few yards away.
At the opposite end, one row back, sat Marilyn Ansman, anxiously glimpsing a fleeting look at her handcuffed son, who briefly turned toward her as a bailiff escorted him from the courtroom.
Both moms walk with considerable difficult, although their lives are dominated now by a double-edged tragedy.
Attributing her dilemma to the pressure of yet another in a long line of courtroom hearings, Mrs. Harris said she did not sleep at all last night.
Mrs. Ansman understood because she, too, has lain awake all night at times without finding relief. In conversations with her son, she came away believing his trial — in which he faces a life sentence if convicted — would begin next month. That is off, if it ever was on.
New Schedule
Judge Dabney scheduled a hearing for next Thursday to introduce a public defender as Sgt. Ansman’s new lawyer.
Allowing for catch-up time for the incoming lawyer, Mr. Markus estimated that September is the likeliest date for a trial.
