CALDWELL — The sentencing for a Nampa man convicted of murder was pushed back Friday after his defense attorney resigned from the Idaho State Bar in lieu of discipline.
Raul Edgar Herrera, 21, was found guilty of first-degree murder in July for the beating death of 46-year-old Jeffrey Dyer. Prosecutors say Herrera and an accomplice, 21-year-old Angelo Cervantes, killed the man during a home invasion last year because he failed to hold up his end of a drug deal.
Former Canyon County Prosecutor John Bujak defended Herrera throughout the trial, but voluntarily gave up his law license last Thursday after the Idaho State Bar sought his disbarment on ethical grounds.
Bujak had filed a motion to have Herrera's convictions overturned on grounds of insufficient evidence July 31, but told Judge Juneal Kerrick that he was about to lose his law license and that Herrera would need a new attorney. That created a problem: Herrera's accomplice Cervantes is represented by the public defender's office and testified against his former friend during trial. The situation created a conflict of interest for the public defender's office, which could not ethically defend Herrera and Cervantes at the same time.
In another complication, the judge who presided over the trial - Judge Molly Huskey - was appointed to the Idaho Court of Appeals and left for her new position before the sentencings, handing the cases over to Kerrick instead.
Conflict attorney Aaron Bazzoli was brought in to represent Herrera and alleviate the conflict of interest. But Bazzoli told Kerrick Friday he wan't prepared to go forward with Herrera's sentencing. Attempts to get discovery, trial notes and other court documents from Bujak had proved fruitless, he said.
Bazzoli, who was not present during Herrera's trial, said the prosecutor's office was providing him copies of some of the documents he needed. But he said he still needs trial transcripts in order to know what happened and how to best provide a defense for Herrera. The length of the transcripts and the seriousness of the crime meant he needed more time to go through everything, he said.
"This isn't some drug case that we can easily go through," Bazzoli said. "This is a unique circumstance where the trial attorney is no longer the attorney of record."
Prosecutor Gerald Wolff said he did not oppose resetting Herrera's sentencing. He also said he had also had trouble getting documents from Bujak, charging that the former lawyer "bailed on the case when he knew he was going to be losing his license."
Kerrick agreed to push back the sentencing, setting a status conference for Nov. 2 to ensure all the lawyers had received the documentation they needed. Herrera's sentencing will be set sometime after that date.
Herrera will face up to life in prison at his sentencing.
