Prosecutors tried to block a new trial Thursday for a Fallston man accused of a road-rage murder.
Michael Razzio Simmons, 20, missed the deadline to file for a new trial and did not sign a crucial document, prosecutors said. In April, Simmons pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the stabbing death of 23-year-old Patrick Walker.
But Simmons then sought to change his plea and requested a new trial because, he said, his lawyer at the time did not interview key witnesses or supply him with the evidence against him.
“As far as I know, he never interviewed anybody,” said Simmons, who took the stand in a T-shirt and chains to recount the weeks after his guilty plea. Simmons has since changed lawyers.
Vernon Gentile, assistant state’s attorney, said a secretary from Simmons? lawyer?s office signed the motion for him, invalidating the motion and pushing it past the 10-day deadline for filing. The motion must be signed by the defendant or his lawyer, Gentile said, citing previous cases.
“It?s your intention to have this court do away with everything you did a few months ago,” Gentile said to Simmons. Simmons had pleaded guilty in April to stabbing Walker in May 2006 during a fit of “road rage” behind the Harford County Health Department. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Simmons said his parents sought help from Baltimore-based lawyer Kenneth Ravenell, whose partner interviewed Simmons in prison and hastily drafted a request for a new trial in the week or two after he was imprisoned.
In the haste, Simmons could not sign his name to the motion himself, so a secretary in Ravenell?s office did so, Gentile said.
“We made sure the defendant?s rights were protected even when he could not protect them himself,” Ravenell said.
