A Carter County man charged with two murders will soon have a new attorney after a Criminal Court Judge granted a request by the state to remove one of the defense lawyers from the case citing a conflict of interest.
Eric Azotea, 44, of the Pinecrest community, appeared in Carter County Criminal Court on Tuesday for a hearing on a motion by District Attorney General Tony Clark seeking to have attorney Steve Finney removed from Azotea’s defense team. Azotea is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of abuse of a corpse and one count of tampering with evidence in connection with the murder and dismemberment of a Sullivan County couple in January 2015.
Because the state has filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty in the case, state law requires that Azotea, who was declared indigent by the court, have two court-appointed attorneys to help him mount his defense against the charges.
In his motion asking the court to remove attorney Steve Finney as one of Azotea’s lawyers, Clark states it is the state’s position that a conflict of interest exists with Finney representing Azotea.
Finney was previously employed by the District Attorney General’s Office as an Assistant District Attorney. During his tenure with the office, Finney served as the state’s prosecuting attorney against Azotea on charges of carjacking and robbery, Clark said in the motion, adding those previous convictions are included as aggravating factors in the state’s intent to seek the death penalty.
The possibility of the conflict of interest was brought up during a previous court hearing in the case and Criminal Court Judge Stacy Street issued a court order for both defense attorneys and the District Attorney General’s Office to have a joint conference call with the Board of Professional Responsibility to determine if a conflict of interest existed.
“Upon conferring with the Board of Professional Responsibility to determine if a conflict existed in Mr. Finney representing the defendant, it was concluded that should the defendant waive any conflict and Mr. Finney’s prosecution of the defendant didn’t result in a determent to the State, the Board of Professional Responsibility formed the opinion there was no conflict,” Clark said in his motion. “The Board of Professional Responsibility ultimately advised if the State felt that Mr. Finney’s representation of the defendant could potentially result in appellant issues in the future, it was incumbent upon the state to request removal. Based on the concerns detailed in this motion, the fact the State is seeking the death penalty, it is of the opinion that Mr. Finney be removed as counsel to avoid the possibility of future appellant issues should this matter result in conviction.”
Following the hearing on the motion, Street granted the request by the state and removed Finney as one of Azotea’s attorneys in the case. Attorney Gene Scott, who had served as co-counsel on the case, was made the lead counsel on the case.
In court on Tuesday, Scott said he would consider appealing Street’s decision on the motion.
Street scheduled Azotea to return to Criminal Court on Nov. 21 at which time the court will review whether or not Scott has appealed the decision and if a new attorney needs to be appointed in the case.