Defendant in Zimmerman murder case wants new attorneys
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A Superior Court judge rejected defendant Ioan Laurint’s request to change attorneys. Public Defender Jason Gundel told KSWT the court does have other options.
“County of Imperial retains contract counsels, panel attorneys, safety abet theoretically can be appointed,” Gundel said.
Laurint was in court on Wednesday for pre-trial, accused in the death of El Centro attorney Anne Marie Zimmerman.
We asked Gundel if they were considering a plea of insanity.
“At this point it doesn’t seem like that’s something we’re going to need to address,” Gundel said.
Gundel told the court he needed more time to review the contents of a hard drive that Laurint allegedly placed at the victim’s office when she was still alive.
“The court in this case appointed a special master, an independent party, to review discovery kind of evidence that was brought at the scene,” Gundel said.
The D.A. said the files will be available this week.
“The hope is then that we have a better idea of where this case is headed based upon kind of a complete review of all the information,” Gundel said.
During the arraignment phase, the hard drive was said to have critical digital evidence – intimate images of Laurint and Zimmerman meant for her husband to see.
“We need some time to evaluate those reports, because we don’t really at this point have any idea what’s in there,” Gundel said.
Laurint came into the court room and left with the use of a walker, as he has done in all previous court appearances.
Next court date is set for August 16 th .
