Published: September 04, 2008 04:08 pm      

Trial postponed: Attorney's illness, unavailable witness delays death penalty case

The capital murder case that was heading toward an October trial of the man accused of shooting a prison nurse and her four-year-old daughter has been postponed indefinitely after a state-certified death penalty case lawyer came down with a serious illness. The unavailability of a key expert witness for the defense also figured into the decision.

It now appears the earliest the trial will be held will be the first two weeks of December.

The family of Kimberly Mullinix Wyatt, 27, and her daughter, Sarah Elizabeth Wyatt, will have to wait a little longer for the two-year-old fatal shooting case to come to trial.

Huston Foley Lloyd Jr., 50, of Kingston Springs, the man accused, who has been in jail since his arrest shortly after the slayings, will also have to wait a little longer for his day in court.

Lloyd, a nurse for the Tennessee Department of Corrections at a Nashville facility, is charged with gunning down the mom and daughter in the parking lot of Lantana Church of Christ on June 3, 2006. Lloyd was arrested not long after the shooting and after a chase that took place and ended in Bledsoe County.

Kimberly Mullinix was also a prison nurse and assigned to Southeast Tennessee Regional Correction Facility near Pikeville. Reportedly the two met during mandatory in-service training sessions and, according to testimony during a preliminary hearing, the two were briefly involved in a relationship that Mullinix no longer had interest in.

Lloyd was indicted on two counts of first-degree murder, felony murder and aggravated assault.

"A death penalty case requires us to be more careful about what we do and how we do it," Judge Leon Burns was quoted by the Cookeville Herald-Citizen following last Thursday's hearing. "And that's not to say we are not careful with other kinds of cases.

"We will get this case tried properly and without error. And if it takes me a while to get it done, then it will. If I'm going to participate in what might be called a state-sanctioned killing, then I'm gong to be slow and careful about it."

The main cause for delay is the hospitalization of Jamestown defense attorney John Appman has been in a Knoxville hospital being treated for an undisclosed kidney-related ailment.

State law requires that at least one attorney representing a defendant in a capital murder case be state-certified as a capital murder specialist. There are only a handful of attorneys across the state who meet that criteria.

Lebanon attorneys Jack Lowery Sr. and Jack Lowery Jr. have been representing Lloyd and in recent hearings, Lowery Jr. has been making appearances for hearings on a host of motions.

"There is a problem in being ready for trial and preparing an effective defense and there is the likelihood of his (Appman) absence during the trial," Lowery was quoted by the Cookeville paper as stating last week. "He was appointed to this matter, and I think it is incumbent on the court that he be relieved."

Lowery added that getting the case to trial on the schedule set last month was a problem for the defense because one key witness has already been scheduled to testify out-of-state in a murder case and a post-conviction relief case.

The defense attorney added that there have been some problems and difficulties "we have had with communicating with our client."

The trial was moved to Putnam County this summer because of the amount of pre-trial publicity in East Tennessee media. The schedule approved during an Aug. 15 meeting between Judge Burns, Lowery, District Attorney Tony Craighead and Assistant District Attorney Gary McKenzie called for about 100 Putnam County residents to be put on jury notice.

The group was to appear in court on Sept. 25 to fill out a pre-approved questionnaire that included input from the judge and both sides. Once jurors filled out the questionnaire, they would be free to leave.

For the next couple of days attorneys for both sides would have access to the questionnaires so they could prepare for jury selections.

A randomly selected panel of pre-qualified jurors would then be call in to begin the jury selection process on Sept. 30. It was hoped that the trial could begin as early as Oct. 1 with eight days set aside for the trial, with rare Saturday and Sunday testimony.

Burns said last week that upon relieving Appman of his appointment, Burns would immediately begin the search for a replacement death penalty certified lawyer.

Burns was quoted last week as stating he understands "the concern of the family of the victim over the time we've had this case. But Mr. Appman has to be replaced, and it may take a while to find counsel to replace him."