Murder suspect’s request for new lawyer denied

PANAMA CITY — A judge denied a murder suspect’s request for a new attorney as the trial to determine whether he will face the death penalty draws near.

Kim Jewell with the Public Defender’s Office will continue to represent Bryan Castleman, who is scheduled to go to trial beginning April 28 on two counts of first-degree murder for allegedly killing his wife and father-in-law in the Springfield home they all shared in November 2012.

In a motion filed Wednesday, Castleman wrote he’s concerned Jewell isn’t trying hard enough to get a not-guilty verdict and is too focused on keeping him off death row.

“After listening to enough ‘guilty until proven innocent’ and realizing that her idea of winning cases is life sentences instead of the Death Penalty, I have decided to speak up!” Castleman wrote.

Judge James Fensom denied the motion after a hearing last week. Jewell, who was successful in getting portions of Castleman’s statements to investigators suppressed because investigators denied him an attorney after he requested one, declined to comment.

Castleman showed his neighbor Ricardo Reynolds the bodies of Mary Ann Castleman and Leroy Minnich after they were killed, Reynolds told The News Herald on Nov. 26, 2012, the day Springfield Police found their bodies. Reynolds said they had been stabbed and beaten with a hammer.

After they were killed, Castleman and Reynolds bought video games and crack cocaine with money stolen from Mary Ann Castleman. They partied while the two bodies lay in the other room.

Police believe they were killed Nov. 23.

In a recent court filing, prosecutors summarized text messages between Castleman and his wife from the days before her death. Though they had reportedly been having trouble in their relationship, the last text exchange was each telling the other they loved them.

The filing also includes texts between Castleman and Reynolds from Nov. 23 and Nov. 24. At 10:39 p.m. on Nov. 23, Castleman told Reynolds he wanted to leave for Arkansas within 45 minutes and asked for Reynolds’ help. Eighteen minutes later he wrote, “call me now I’m gonna take out my wife and her dad tonight I need ur help call me,” then 16 minutes he wrote, “after I’m done I wanna get some hoes and party all night”.

Castleman has a pretrial hearing scheduled for April 14. The trial will be conducted in two phases. In the first, which is scheduled to begin with jury selection on April 28, jurors will determine whether or not Castleman is guilty. In the second phase they will decide whether or not to recommend that Fensom sentence him to death.