A 21-year-old Washburn woman will get a new murder trial in Woodford County after the 4th District Appellate Court found she was never warned about her lawyer's own legal issues in the same county, and the conflicts of interest they could pose.
Maya Nodine was sentenced by Judge Charles Feeney to 30 years in prison in March 2023. Court records say Nodine drove into oncoming traffic at upwards of 90 mph in an attempt to kill herself, and crashed into Joy Hattan's vehicle. Nodine survived, but Hattan was killed.
The Woodford County State's Attorney's Office charged Nodine with murder in December 2021. Nodine was represented by Maureen Williams, who herself was on probation in Woodford County after pleading guilty to felony forgery charges in 2020.
On Feb. 15, 2023, the Woodford County State's Attorney's Office filed a petition to revoke Williams' probation 10 days before it was set to expire, and six days after Feeney granted Nodine a new trial because a replacement juror wasn't properly questioned during her first trial.
Before the move to revoke her probation, Williams had asked to substitute Feeney for another judge, alleging he had already made up his mind on Nodine's guilt and was relying on faulty legal reasoning.
After the state's attorney moved to revoke her probation, she asked the judge weighing the substitution to appoint a new attorney to the case. When he said he couldn't, she withdrew the substitution motion, and instead asked Feeney to assign Nodine a public defender because she had a "breakdown in communication" with her client. Feeney denied that request.
The appellate court noted Williams had never told Feeney she was on felony probation, there was a motion to revoke it, and that he would likely be presiding over her own revocation case.
"It makes no sense why she would not argue these points to Judge Feeney, unless she was concerned her own personal situation would be negatively affected if she did so," the justices wrote.
Feeney himself had presided over Williams' 2020 forgery case and sentenced her to probation. Nodine was sentenced five days after Feeney presided over a hearing in Williams' probation case.
The appellate court said they believe Williams' performance was "clearly affected" by the conflict. They noted Williams presented no evidence to mitigate Nodine's sentence, despite previously arguing experts should be allowed to testify on her mental health and how it had affected her state of mind at the time of the crash. They also noted Williams didn't file a motion to reconsider the sentence on behalf of her client.
"[It] is difficult to reach any rational explanation for attorney Williams’s actions, except for a possible personal desire to neither anger nor aggravate the Woodford County State’s Attorney’s Office or Judge Feeney," the judges wrote.
They said Williams should have disclosed she was on probation to the court after first agreeing to represent Nodine, so the court could tell Nodine about the possible conflict, and allow her to either sign a knowing waiver of her right to conflict-free counsel, or get a different attorney. The appellate justices said the state's attorney's office or the judge could also raised the same issues.
The appellate court wrote that attorneys and trial courts shouldn't be shy about addressing potential conflicts as early as possible, and making sure the defendant either signs a waiver or gets a new attorney.
"Early identification of conflicts fosters transparency in the judicial system, increases the public’s confidence in the legal system, and preserves judicial resources," they wrote.
