Updated at 5:31 p.m., Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Sentencing postponed for suspect in deputy's murder
Jim Dooley
Advertiser Staff Writer
City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle personally argued that Circuit Judge Karl Sakamoto sentence Lorenzo to an extended prison term of 20 years. But Sakamoto put the hearing off after Lorenzo asked that his new attorney in the murder case be allowed to represent him in the drug case.
Lorenzo, 32, was indicted last week on murder, attempted murder, kidnapping and other charges connected to the Feb. 10 shooting death of off-duty state deputy sheriff, Daniel Browne-Sanchez.
Lorenzo has pleaded not guilty to those crimes, which occurred while he was awaiting sentencing on four drug charges first brought against him in 2005.
Sentencing in the drug case was delayed four times last year and this year after Sakamoto granted Lorenzo time to complete drug treatment.
Carlisle said last week that Browne-Sanchez would still be alive today if Lorenzo had been sent to prison on the drug charges in a timely manner.
Lorenzo's lawyer in the drug case, Frank Fernandez, asked to be replaced today by Walter Rodby, the court-appointed lawyer in the murder case. Lorenzo "strongly requested" that Rodby be allowed to take over the drug case, Fernandez said. And he told the judge that Lorenzo has not paid his legal bills "for a number of months."
