Suspect in officers' deaths staying in jail, getting new lawyer

For four days, Dontae Morris was a specter for some 200 law enforcement officers bent on capturing the man accused of killing two Tampa police officers.

Now, there's little question as to Morris' whereabouts: Unit 5 of Orient Road Jail, a few cells away from Humberto Delgado, who is charged in the August shooting death of a Tampa police corporal.

Morris' day includes 23 hours in the isolation of his maximum security cell; the remaining hour he can get out to shower or to walk around the exercise yard - by himself.

He's not mingling with other inmates, said Hillsborough County sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter.

That cell could be home for Morris for some time as he awaits trial on three counts of first-degree murder - two in Tuesday's slayings of Officers David Curtis and Jeffrey Kocab and one in a May 18 shooting at a Tampa apartment complex.

Already, one legal hurdle has been thrown in his path.

At Morris' first court appearance this morning, about 12 hours after his arrest, defense attorney Charles Traina told the court that the public defender's office could not represent Morris because of a conflict of interest.

Traina said the office already had counseled Cortnee Nicole Brantley, who also faces charges in the officers' deaths.

Another attorney will be appointed to represent Morris, 24, who was ordered held without bail. That lawyer likely will come from the regional conflict counsel office.

Even though it's a high-profile case, defense lawyers likely wouldn't relish representing Morris, said Lyann Goudie, a Tampa defense attorney and former prosecutor.

"I would not accept this case," said Goudie, who helped represent Valessa Robinson, the Tampa teen convicted of third-degree murder in her mother's 1998 slaying.

"He's accused of having killed two police officers," she said of Morris. "It's very difficult to represent somebody accused of something so horrible."

Part of a defense attorney's job might be to discredit the victims; the fact that the victims in this case are police officers makes that thornier.

"If you listen to (Police Chief) Jane Castor's eulogy, she and Mayor Pam Iorio both said it best when they talked about how we all walk around as citizens feeling relatively safe because we have the police protecting us," Goudie said.

It could take 18 months to two years before Morris stands trial, she said, but a good defense attorney will start building a case immediately.

"I'd have him (Morris) evaluated for several things; first from a psychological perspective to determine his mental state at time of incident and now," she said.

On the other side of the courtroom aisle, Hillsborough County prosecutors will present their case to a grand jury in coming weeks.

If the grand jury indicts Morris, prosecutors would then decide whether to seek the death penalty. That could take up to 45 days.

Prosecutors have been working side-by-side with law enforcement since the two officers were shot, said Mark Cox, spokesman for the Hillsborough state attorney's office.

"Anytime there is a police shooting or a police-involved shooting or even a regular homicide, we are called out to the scene," he said.

Brantley, 22, also remains in the county jail. She is being held on a federal charge of concealing a person from arrest.

Police say Brantley was driving the 1994 Toyota Camry stopped by Curtis just before he and Kocab were killed. Police said Morris was Brantley's passenger; Brantley drove away after the shooting and Morris ran.

Brantley was detained later that day and questioned for seven hours by detectives before being released without being charged - a decision that frustrated some police officers and community members.

This morning, Castor said Brantley told detectives she could get Morris to surrender. When he surrendered without her assistance, the decision was made to file charges against Brantley.

She will remain in custody until a federal court appearance next week, officials said.