Lawyer withdraws from murder case

By Joe Gorman | February 24, 2015 at 12:02a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

One of three men accused of two separate slayings on the East Side in November 2011 will get a new attorney.

Mark Lavelle, attorney for 21-year-old Michael Austin of Midland Avenue, was granted a motion to withdraw as Austin’s counsel in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on Monday because of friction among himself, his client and his client’s mother.

Judge John Durkin said he will appoint a new attorney for Austin no later than today.

Austin is one of three men accused in the deaths of 23-year-old Adam Christian, who was shot at a Woodcrest Avenue home Nov. 13, 2011, and Raymond “Remel” Hayes, 20, who was found shot to death in a sparsely populated area of the East Side near Gerwig and Knapp avenues Nov. 16, 2011.

Austin was indicted in the homicides in March 2013 along with Dewaylyn Colvin, 32, of Nelson Avenue and Hakeem Henderson, 23, of Salem and San Diego. Their cases still are pending.

Lavelle said he likes his client and represented him as a juvenile and was asked to help Austin surrender to police when he was indicted on a felonious-assault charge just before he was indicted in the two deaths.

He said, however, he and Austin’s mother disagree on how he is representing her son.

Austin said he has been in the jail for almost two years and has rarely received a visit from Lavelle. He said he has notes and strategies he wants to go over with Lavelle and hasn’t been able to do so.

“I like Mark,” Austin said. “But this is a fight for my life, and I think he should try harder.”

Lavelle said part of the problem is he has certain evidence that can be given only to attorneys and not defendants. He said he can discuss that evidence with a client, but he cannot give that client the evidence or copies of the evidence because of the attorney-only designation.

Lavelle said he would stay on as Austin’s attorney if he agreed to listen to him. If not, then Lavelle said Austin should get a new lawyer.

“I think it’s in his best interest for me to withdraw and to appoint other counsel,” Lavelle said.