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Judge holds off on new lawyer for murder suspect
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Judge Lou D’Apolito has delayed a request for new defense counsel for a man charged with killing his stepmother last summer.
At a hearing Monday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, the judge did agree to allow James Jarrell, 33, access to videotaped witness statements and to have some fibers tested by the state for DNA evidence.
The state did not have those fibers tested nor were they under obligation to have them tested, Judge D’Apolito told Jarrell.
Jarrell wanted to get new counsel because he said he was unhappy with the work of the lawyers appointed to represent him, Mark Lavelle and Andrew Zellars. Jarrell said he was upset with them because he thinks they brush back his suggestions and do not have his interests at heart.
Lavelle acknowledged disagreements but said they were more in terms of strategy on how he thinks Jarrell’s defense should be prepared.
Jarrell also told the judge he thinks his lawyers should examine his mental-health status and how it could affect his defense.
“I have issues in the past that I feel may relate to this at some extent,” Jarrell said.
Jarrell is accused of the July 7 death of Tina Jarrell, 55, who was found dead in the kitchen of her Wellington Avenue home on the West Side.
Reports said Tina Jarrell was found by her husband, Robert Jarrell, after he returned from work about 11:35 p.m.
Reports said when officers arrived, they found her face down on the living-room floor covered in blood and not breathing.
James Jarrell also said he wanted to have an investigator appointed to the defense in his case, but when asked what he wanted investigated, Jarrell said, “everything in general.”
Judge D’Apolito said that to jettison Lavelle and Zellars, who the judge said were both fine lawyers, would be a waste of time and delay Jarrell’s trial, which also would increase the time he would have to wait in jail until a new attorney could be appointed and review the evidence in the case.
Instead, the judge said he would allow the fibers found at the crime scene prosecutors possess to be tested for the defense.
Jarrell also complained he had not seen video statements from the witnesses in the case, so the judge arranged for a time and place for Jarrell to watch those statements. Jarrell said those actions met his approval and he agreed, for now, to not change lawyers.