Friday, November 2, 2001
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Friday, November 2, 2001 |
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Movie theater gunman to get new lawyer after appeal stretches out three years By JOHN
MUNFORD A man convicted in 1998 of robbing a movie theater at gunpoint will be allowed to get another court-appointed attorney to represent him during the appeals process. Darnell Nowlin is serving a life prison sentence plus 20 years for armed robbery and kidnapping after he was convicted by a Fayette jury in 1997. Nowlin was the gunman in a two-person crew that robbed the Movies 10 in Fayetteville in the early morning hours of Jan. 5, 1995. According to the indictment filed against Nowlin, the assistant manager of the theater was tied up after he opened the theater's safe. Nowlin complained in a hearing Monday that his appeal of the case has been filed for three years but unacted upon by the Fayette County Superior Court. Upon hearing that, Judge Paschal English said Nowlin he would have the local indigent defense committee made aware of the situation right away. "You will hear from an attorney by the end of the day," English said. Charles R. Floyd, the attorney who represented Nowlin when he was convicted of the charges, said the appeal of the trial was filed timely within the 30 days following the original verdict. That appeal was amended several months later after the transcript of the trial was received and reviewed for more appeal issues, Floyd said. Nevertheless, Nowlin contends he wishes to seek a new trial possibly on the basis that he was provided with ineffective counsel. Nowlin filed several motions with the court on his own, although Floyd was present at Monday's hearing. Floyd agreed that with such allegations he would find it difficult to serve as Nowlin's attorney. After the hearing, Floyd said Nowlin was well-represented; Judge English said the same during the hearing. "I don't know if anyone could have done a better job representing you at trial," said English, who presided over the original trial, which ended in a mistrial, and the following trial less than a month later.
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