PANAMA CITY — Authorities have released the testimony of an attorney ordered to testify against his own client during a murder trial, according to court records.
Darryl Mack, 22, pleaded no contest in exchange for 20 years of prison last week after learning his initial attorney in the case would testify against him. Before then, at a December hearing closed to the public, Mack objected to the disclosure of his attorney-client privileged conversations. However, Circuit Court Judge James Fensom ruled those statements could be used against Mack at trial.
Prosecutor Bob Sombathy said the situation in which an attorney would be ordered to testify against a client is extremely rare, but only as rare as a client telling his lawyer about plans to commit a homicide in the future.
“The last thing a lawyer wants to do is testify against his client,” Sombathy said. “But it is not reasonable to ask your lawyer to be your conspirator.”
Timothy Hilley, Mack’s initial legal counsel, testified in a closed courtroom that Mack had threatened the life of a witness to the July shooting death of 24-year-old Tavish Greene, who had been a murder witness himself. Hilley said at the end of a jailhouse interview regarding the knowledge of the witness, Mack allegedly asked what would happen if the witness was unavailable for the trial.
“Mack was on his way to leave, and he walked over to door and he said, ‘Could those statements be used if he was murdered,’ ” Hilley testified.
“I said, ‘No, it would be hearsay,’ ” he said of Mack’s right to face his accuser at trial.
Mack then responded, “How much time do I have?” Hilley said. “And I didn’t catch it at first, but then he asked again, ‘How long before trial?’ ”
Mack left the room after Hilley told him the trial could begin as soon as June, Hilley said, and Hilley then reported the incident to the State Attorney’s Office since the man Mack was accused of killing had been a witness to a murder himself.
Mack was arrested with Tyricka Woullard, 20, in June of last year. The two fled the state to Covington, Georgia, as police discovered Greene’s body in the trunk of a 2004 Chevy Malibu behind an abandoned East Eighth Court home on July 24.
Police said Greene’s death came at the end of a botched robbery, involving three conspiring parties.
One of the three accused, 22-year-old Dontavis Thomas, pleaded no contest to being an accessory to Greene’s murder and agreed to five years of probation for his testimony.
Thomas had particularly damaging testimony against Mack, and — although not named by Mack — Sombathy said the threat was directed at Thomas.
“This isn’t a random theoretical discussion; this was specifically following up the statements of Thomas,” Sombathy said. “We’re talking about a specific person who provides damaging testimony against Mack; he mentions murder and asks how much time he has.”
Hilley was removed from the case and defense attorney Albert Sauline III replaced him as Mack’s counsel. Sauline argued that it was too generalized of a statement and that Mack never mentioned Thomas by name.
“There was never any plot discussed to have any witness in this case murdered,” Sauline said. “It was simply a question of ‘what if.’ No name was ever said.”
However, Fensom sided with the prosecution in the case and ordered Hilley to testify against Mack at trial. The decision was revealed moments before Mack accepted a plea deal last week of 20 years in prison.
Woullard’s case is pending. She recently has been ordered to undergo competency evaluations before the case can proceed in the courts.