Angola 5 defendant’s trial delayed

ST. FRANCISVILLE — The judge presiding over the Angola 5 murder cases postponed defendant Barry Edge’s trial Friday to give defense attorneys time to investigate an Angola inmate’s claim about a purported jailhouse confession.

Jury selection was scheduled to begin Feb. 27 in Covington for the fourth in a series of five first-degree murder trials in the Dec. 28, 1999, beating and stabbing death of Louisiana State Penitentiary security Capt. David C. Knapps, 49, during an escape attempt from the prison’s Camp D unit.

Prosecutors from Jefferson and Caddo parishes have tried three of the five defendants, convincing jurors from St. Tammany Parish to give Jeffrey Clark and David Brown the death penalty. Robert G. Carley received a second life sentence after another jury could not agree on the appropriate penalty.

Judge Jerome M. Winsberg postponed jury selection in Edge’s case until April 23 after hearing arguments for and against the delay.

The ruling also means a new trial date will be set for the fifth defendant, David Mathis, who had been scheduled to go on trial in April.

Edge, 51, is serving a life sentence for second-degree murder.

Prosecutors notified Edge’s attorneys, Nelvil Hollingsworth and Fred Kroenke, on Feb. 1 that they intend to call Angola inmate Richard Domingue to testify about statements Domingue said Edge made about the slaying.

Kroenke said Domingue told prison officials last year that Edge told him that he was aware of the would-be escapees’ plan to kill Knapps and that Edge “took control of the situation and ordered the killing of Capt. Knapps.”

Prosecutors should have told defense attorneys about the alleged statements to Domingue in order for them to investigate Domingue’s veracity, Kroenke said.

Kroenke said prosecutors have known for years that Edge’s defense is based on minimizing his culpability in the slaying.

“This statement obviously is currently opposite the total defense we intend to offer,” Kroenke said.

Hollingsworth said defense investigators need time to determine whether prison officials made a deal in exchange for Domingue’s statement by agreeing not to disclose that Domingue was involved in a serious breach of security involving smuggled cellphones.

Domingue is a “professional snitch” who is going to testify that Edge was the mastermind of the escape attempt and made the decision alone that Knapps had to be killed, Hollingsworth said, adding that prosecutors should have disclosed the matter months ago.

“We are not the ones creating the monster here. We haven’t played in the petri dish,” Hollingsworth said, referring to the last-minute request to postpone the trial.

Prosecutor Hugo Holland said state attorneys learned of Domingue’s claim in June, but did not interview two possible corroborating witnesses until January. Holland added that the state attorneys had “a few intervening first-degree and second-degree murder and rape cases” in their jurisdictions.

Winsberg suggested Holland and prosecutor Lea Hall could avoid a trial delay by agreeing not to use Domingue as a witness, but, after conferring with lead prosecutor Tommy Block by telephone, they said they will call him to testify.

The judge said the statement goes directly against Edge’s alleged intent in the slaying, and disclosing it to defense attorneys a few weeks before trial is “highly prejudicial.”

“It comes down to a matter of fairness,” the judge said.