SKOWHEGAN (AP) — Two attorneys for a Maine man convicted in the 2013 pipe-beating death of another man have asked to withdraw from the case.
The Morning Sentinel reports court-appointed attorneys Stephen Smith and Caleb Gannon filed a motion to withdraw from Jason Cote’s case last week. Cote’s appeal is pending before the state Supreme Judicial Court.
Cote was convicted of murder last December and later sentenced to 45 years in prison.
His defense appealed in February, saying the 25- year-old Palmyra man was acting in self-defense when he bludgeoned 47-year-old Ricky Cole to death in Cole’s Detroit home on July 17, 2013.
Smith didn’t comment Thursday on why they are asking to withdraw. He says the appeal will still go forward.
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