The hearing for a 23-year-old Hutchinson man convicted of attempted manufacture of methamphetamine and attempted 2nd degree murder is in court over a civil filing he made is in recess till Thursday. Paul Stotts is arguing ineffective counsel at trial.
He’s serving 304-months after being convicted of attempted 2nd degree murder for intentionally crashing his vehicle into another, badly injuring the other driver. He was also found guilty of having items consistent with a meth lab inside his vehicle, two counts of aggravated battery, and several counts of flee and elude.
The case has to do with the 24-minute high speed chase through both South Hutchinson and Hutchinson which ultimately ended with the crash on K-61 back on March 26th of 2007.
The case is before Judge Trish Rose where two ex-employees testified on how David Holmes handled the case. Both stated that he only visited his client maybe 3-to-4 times and always on Sunday. But, the state got them to acknowledge that they had no way of knowing where he went each day when he went to the courthouse. One also admitted that she typed some correspondence involving the plea offer.
His attorney for this hearing Shaun Lautz spent half the morning questioning Holmes over whether he communicated any plea offers from the state to his client. Holmes says he did and told the court that Stotts was very involved in his own defense prior to trial. Lautz also tried to get Holmes to talk about any issues in his personal life, but Holmes says he knew he would be going up against Deputy District Attorney Tom Stanton which he says is a tough competitor, so he needed to bring his A-game each day during trial. Stanton at one point during this case put on the record that he offered the plea agreement and that it was turned down by the defense.
Larry Stotts, the father of the defendant testified that he was told that Holmes called the states offer, “predictable” and that they would prepare for trial. That from his son according.
The two former employees told the court that Holmes would ask them to stall Stotts saying he didn’t have time to talk with him everyday.
Again, the hearing resumes Thursday afternoon in front of Judge Trish Rose.