Craig Liner at a hearing on Friday in Bradley County.
CLEVELAND, Tenn. (WDEF)- The Cleveland man charged with the murder of his ex-wife says he has lost his defense attorney.
This, after prosecutors say he planned to have his ex-mother in law killed as well.
Craig Liner is currently facing two separate criminal cases.
The first case he was in court for on Friday was for the murder of his ex-wife, Karen Liner.
Video shown at a previous hearing shows Karen being shot and killed in her driveway on Arthur Lane by Craig.
He would later catch an attempted murder charge for attempting to orchestrate the murder of his ex-mother in law while incarcerated.
In that case’s preliminary hearing, a fellow inmate testified Liner had offered him a boat and car in exchange for executing the murder.
As he awaits trial on this case, he had been represented by attorney Matthew Rogers in the preliminary hearings.
However, Rogers has no longer been retained by Liner because he says he has no access to his money.
Judge Sandra Donaghy: Do you know if there is some sort of an order that is allowing payment of money for any attorneys?
Liner: I’m not sure, I really don’t know. Everything’s been tied up.
Judge Donaghy says she would like to see a sealed court order in Liner’s civil case to confirm this.
She said, “I want to set this case for trial, and I don’t know who your attorney is going to be, and I don’t know if a trial date that I pick is going to be acceptable to him or her, but perhaps if I got a copy of that court order if it looks like there is no money coming your way, I’m of a mind to appoint a public defender, unless they have some sort of conflict of interest based upon your indigency and lack of access to funds.”
As for the trial itself, prosecutor Ashley Zepada says they have all but a few pieces of evidence fully processed through a state crime lab.
However, the lack of an attorney for Liner could complicate that process.
Judge Donaghy said, “Some attorney will enter an appearance, motions will be filed by someone. I don’t know whether they’ll want a psychiatric evaluation or any sort of special testing done.”
Zepada says they plan to call 20 to 30 witnesses in this trial.
A date was set for next May, where if convicted, Liner could face the death penalty.
