Less than three weeks before he is scheduled to go to trial in West Texas, polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs has fired his defense attorney.
Prominent Fort Worth attorney Jeff Kearney will be replaced with Emily Munoz Detoto, of Houston, according to documents filed Thursday in Schleicher County court.
It is not the first time Jeffs has fired a lawyer in Texas. He hired Austin attorney Gerry Morris in January, only to cut him loose hours later.
In a motion to withdraw, Kearney wrote he was dismissed on Wednesday, when an unnamed Jeffs representative called him. Jeffs "wished to immediately terminate [his] services," documents state. Kearney was told to immediately turn all discovery and files in the case over to Detoto. The court has not yet ruled on the motion.
Detoto, who calls herself a "Texas warrior lawyer" on her website, filed notice of appearance as co-counsel Friday. The criminal defense attorney has appeared on criminal justice TV shows and, in 2003, helped represent a woman charged with running over her cheating husband with a car.
Jeffs, 55, is charged with sexual assault and bigamy connected with two alleged underage spiritual marriages, one to a 12-year-old girl and the other to a girl under the age of 17.
His trial is scheduled to begin on July 25. It was not immediately known if the switch in attorneys might push back that date. No requests to reschedule the trial were filed Thursday, and state District Judge Barbara Walther is on vacation, a court clerk said. Kearney did not return a call for comment.
Detoto has already requested another run at replacing Walther, arguing again that the judge is biased against members of Jeffs’ Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.