A murder defendant’s trial scheduled for Monday was postponed indefinitely after the man asked that a new defense lawyer be appointed to his case.
Lamont Jones, 18, had indicated unhappiness with defense lawyer Jeffrey Crowther during a previous court appearance when he turned down a prosecutorial plea offer to settle his case. On Monday morning, Mr. Crowther formally told a judge in Lucas County Common Pleas Court that Jones had asked him to withdraw.
Judge Stacy Cook asked Jones whether he might accept, as an alternative that might keep his case moving, the appointment as a second-chair defense lawyer, a younger attorney, to whom he might better relate. Jones said he could work with that lawyer but still wanted Mr. Crowther to stop representing him.
Jones faces alternative counts of murder and felonious assault, all with gun and gang specifications, and participating in a criminal gang for the June 24, 2020, shooting death of James Smith, Jr., 19, in a parking lot at the Moody Manor Apartments.
Three other men, all juveniles at the time of the shooting, recently accepted plea bargains and received prison sentences from Judge Cook. Kendall Hill, 21, and Keondre Baker, 20, were convicted of involuntary manslaughter and participating in a criminal gang, while Mytaveon Walls, 20, was convicted only of the gang charge.
Jones, who already is serving an 11-year sentence for a separate shooting in 2023 in which the victim was paralyzed, rejected on Feb. 3 an offer of 20 years in prison for charges matching Hill’s and Baker’s. He faces life in prison if convicted of his indicted charges.
Judge Cook said Monday she could not appoint a new lawyer for Jones right away because many of the criminal-defense attorneys the court relies most heavily upon for such cases are ineligible, having represented Jones’ co-defendants either in the current case or previously in juvenile court.
She said she instead needed to contact several others who might be available to see if they would take the case, and scheduled for March 5 a pre-trial conference at which she hoped to appoint one.
The judge said earlier in Monday’s proceeding that appointing a new lead defense lawyer would likely delay Jones’ trial until the fall because of the time needed for that lawyer to catch up on the case.
“I wouldn’t put a new attorney on with trial status,” she said before cautioning Jones that prosecutors would be under no obligation to offer him a sweeter deal because he changed lawyers — doing so “would not be prudent.”
Maggie Koch, an assistant Lucas Count prosecutor handling the case, had withdrawn the plea offer to Jones after he rejected it.
Mr. Smith was shot multiple times during a confrontation with five males who accosted him outside a Moody Manor unit previously occupied by his father, who had been killed in a shootout in East Toledo two days earlier. Prosecutors said during prior proceedings that the incident stemmed from a feud between the Body Up Bloods gang that claims territory near Moody Manor and another street gang called Ro.
First Published February 24, 2025, 4:15 p.m.
