Contract killing trial postponed – hartselleenquirer

For the questioner

A man accused of killing a Hartselle father in a 2020 murder-for-hire plot is now scheduled to go on trial on Jan. 7 after attorneys agreed to postpone his Oct. 16 trial date, according to Morgan County District Court records.

Logan Delp, 40, is charged with capital crimes in connection with the shooting death of Anthony Larry Sheppard, 41. Hartselle police found Sheppard dead in his apartment the same day he was scheduled to appear in court to negotiate custody and visitation with the mother of his child, 42-year-old Jaclyn Skuce.

Skuce allegedly paid Delp $30,000 to kill Sheppard after finding Delp through a Facebook account, investigators said. She and three other defendants – Angela Stolz, 37, Aaron Howard, 42, and LaJuhn Smart, 28 – are also charged with capital murder.

All five defendants remained in the Morgan County Jail without bail while awaiting trial. On September 13, one day after all defendants appeared in court for a status conference, District Judge Jennifer Howell issued an order setting Delp's trial for January 7.

“All of the co-defendants listed above must also be present at the trial of Defendant Delp,” she wrote.

Morgan County District Attorney Scott Anderson said this week that trial dates for Delp's co-defendants are still uncertain. He expects to try John Michael Legg, who was charged with seven counts of murder in Valhermoso Springs in 2020, before Delp's co-defendants. Legg's co-defendant, Frederic Rogers, was sentenced last week to life in prison without parole after a Morgan County jury found him guilty of capital murder.

“The capital cases we will try after Delp in 2025 have not yet been determined,” Anderson said. “That depends on the schedules of the court, defense attorneys and the prosecution. I'm sure all parties will address this issue as we get closer to the end of the year.” Howard's letters Howard, who is accused of acting as a spy, recently wrote two letters to Howell from prison, court records show. His case is being handled by court-appointed attorneys Carl Cole and James Adams.

“I have lost confidence in their ability and credibility to defend me,” Howard wrote in an Aug. 24 letter (spelling corrected for readability). He said he was withdrawing the case from them and asked for a new attorney.

Howell then issued an order on August 29 stating that she was “not inclined” to comply with the request.

“The defendant is not sufficiently specific in his motion … and the court believes that the defendant's attorneys are very experienced and very capable of defending the defendant in this case,” she wrote.

However, Howell indicated that Howard would be allowed to respond to his motion at a status conference on Sept. 6. There, Howard's motion was postponed until a hearing on Sept. 13, court records show.

“Defendant Howard, his attorneys and the State agree that decision on Defendant Howard's motion to withdraw counsel be postponed,” Howell wrote in an order issued Sept. 14. As of Thursday, Howard was still represented by Cole and Adams.

Howard wrote a second letter to Howell on August 31, further explaining his concerns. The letter was filed with the court on Tuesday.

In it, Howard made three allegations against Cole. He claimed he was not given evidence despite asking for it for four years; he claimed Cole refused to keep in touch with him; and he claimed Cole refused to defend another of his clients. The letters came shortly after Cole began defending Rogers, whose trial began in mid-August. During opening statements, Cole told the jury that Rogers was guilty of the charges against him as part of the defense team's strategy to keep Rogers from dying. The strategy ultimately worked, and Rogers was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Cole declined to comment on Howard's request last week