Attorney Bill James was appointed Tuesday to represent accused murderer Arron Michael Lewis, and the defendant's capital murder trial was rescheduled for January after Lewis asked Pulaski County Circuit Judge Herb Wright to get him a lawyer and delay the proceedings.
Lewis has been representing himself since firing his lawyer in December after two months of complaining about how the attorney was representing him.
Last week, Lewis told the judge he didn't want legal counsel because an attorney would not share the risks of trial with him because Lewis is the only one who could be sentenced to prison.
But he also asked several questions about how to write his own motions, complained that prosecutors were not cooperating with him, and said that because he's in prison, he didn't have access to computer equipment necessary to review the evidence against him.
Information on his cellphone will clear him, but he doesn't trust anyone in law enforcement to preserve the information if he surrenders his pass code to retrieve it, Lewis told the judge. Authorities say they can't examine the phone without the code. He said he wanted his own representative to be present if he allowed the information to be extracted.
The judge warned Lewis that those problems were the perils of going it alone and urged him to accept legal representation. Wright told Lewis he would appoint the state Public Defender Commission to represent him as soon as he asked.
The judge also set a Monday deadline for Lewis to file motions.
Lewis mailed the handwritten petition Friday. It was received at the court clerk's office Monday and placed in his court file Tuesday morning.
"The prosecutor has failed to comply with [evidentiary rules] and the defendant is unable to make the prosecutor comply even after bringing the matter before the court," Lewis wrote. "Therefore, the defendant is forced to request that counsel be appointed as he is not being given a fair opportunity to examine physical evidence and present a defense."
The commission has retained James, who has one of the state's largest defense firms. James is the new president of the Arkansas Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and has had many high-profile cases, representing a man accused of killing a Russellville beauty queen; a Little Rock police officer who killed a teenage car burglary suspect; a Little Rock woman who fatally stabbed and slashed her mother 70 times; and an Alexander police officer who shot a handcuffed prisoner in the back. A judge last year told a capital-murder defendant who fired James that the lawyer is one of the best in the state.
Prosecutors are seeking a life sentence for Lewis, 34, on charges of capital murder and kidnapping.
He's accused, with his wife, of abducting and killing real estate agent Beverly Carter in September. She disappeared after phoning her husband to say she was going to show an Old River Drive house to an unnamed client. Her 2014 Cadillac, with personalized license plate BCARTER, was found at the residence with her purse inside the car.
Four days later, Carter's remains -- bound with duct tape -- were found buried behind the concrete plant where Lewis had worked.
Sheriff's deputies say Lewis admitted to abducting Carter but wouldn't tell them where she was. Investigators used cellphone records to find the body, according to arrest reports. Affidavits detailing the evidence connecting Lewis and his wife to Carter's slaying have been sealed. In an interview with a TV station, Lewis denied abducting Carter and told a reporter she had gone with him willingly.
In a federal lawsuit he has brought against Pulaski County jailers, he accuses investigators of beating him -- including twisting his right arm until it dislocated -- and denying him medical treatment from injuries related to a car crash and jumping out of a hospital window. He said authorities also ignored his request to have his lawyer with him during questioning. He said in the suit that he made up his answers to make his questioners happy because he feared further brutalization.
Lewis' wife, Crystal Hope Lowery, 42, was arrested a month after her husband. She is being represented by public defenders and has filed for divorce from Lewis, her third husband, whom she married five months before the slaying.
Her lawyers have not filed any motions beyond a routine December filing seeking access to evidence in the case. She will be tried separately from Lewis but has not received a trial date. She complained that she did not know about Lewis' criminal history when they got married in April 2014.
Lewis' criminal history dates back to when he was 17 and convicted of bank robbery in Louisiana. He has been arrested in six states, including Arkansas, and also has convictions for transporting stolen vehicles and theft. He's in prison now, serving time for theft convictions from Benton and Washington counties. He had been on parole in those cases for about a year when Carter was killed.
Metro on 06/10/2015