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Files bound over to grand jury

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

A second case against a defendant in the murder of attorney Blake Lazenby was bound over to a grand jury at a preliminary hearing Tuesday.

Talladega County District Judge Ryan Rumsey declared there is probable cause for the charges against Earnest James Files Jr., 56, of Alexander City.

Files is charged with one count of solicitation of murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder. He is being held on $1 million bond at Tallapoosa County Jail, where he is serving time for various other charges.

District Attorney Steve Giddens called District Attorney Investigator Mike McBurnett as a witness at the hearing.

McBurnett presented a recorded statement from Calvin McCall Haynes, 30, of Birmingham, who is charged with the same two counts as Files in the case. The statement was recorded during an interview Jan. 19 at the Birmingham Police Department.

Haynes stated that Files, also known as “L.A.,” approached him a year ago about murdering the husband of the woman he was dating.

“He was with the girl he was with and two children in a white Chevrolet Silverado,” Haynes said. “There was a white woman in the front and two kids in the back. L.A. was like, ‘She wants to talk to you about killing her husband.’ She asked me to come around to her side, and I did. She was like, ‘I have all the money right here. I just want the job done.’”

Haynes said he “didn’t want no part” of the murder, but he did approach Ocie Lee Lynch, 30, of Birmingham with the offer. Lynch is charged in the case with two counts of capital murder committed during a burglary in the first degree.

“I go to Ocie,” Haynes said. “I was like, ‘Well, the lady said she got 40 G’s, and she want her husband killed. Are you down with it?’ And he was like, ‘I’m down with it.’”

He said Files gave Lynch $2,000 of his own money when he agreed to carry out the murder.

“(Files) wrote down the address and told Ocie how to get there,” Haynes said. “When he wrote down the address, Ocie was like, ‘I got it. You ain’t got nothing to worry about.’”

As the recording played, Files showed visible signs that he disagreed with the statement. He frequently laughed, shook his head, covered his face and wrote notes to his lawyer, Eric Hutchins.

When the recording ended, Giddens asked McBurnett to identify Files in the courtroom. McBurnett pointed to Files and said, “That’s him right there in the stripes.”

Files began to laugh, and Giddens asked if Files was the man laughing.

Files replied, “Yes.”

Rumsey then asked Files to conduct himself in a proper manner in the courtroom.

Hutchins asked McBurnett several questions about the recorded statement, many of which were objected to by Giddens.

Hutchins then asked if police were able to determine the female who was allegedly in the vehicle with Files when he approached Haynes about the murder.

Giddens objected, saying the question was irrelevant to determine probable cause. Rumsey sustained the objection. Rumsey also denied a motion from Hutchins to reduce Files’ bond to $250,000.

After the hearing, Hutchins said the state’s lack of willingness to divulge any information showed they have little evidence to implicate Files in this case.

“Mr. Files is innocent until proven guilty,” Hutchins said. “Listening to what the state has, nothing is concrete, which shows they lack a case.”

Hutchins said much of Files’ other legal troubles are the result of the District Attorney’s Office.

“A lot of the trouble he has is through a concerted effort by the D.A.’s office to persecute him for something he didn’t do and he didn’t have anything to do with,” Hutchins said.

Giddens replied to Hutchins statement.

“He can try his case in the newspaper; I’ll try mine in court,” he said. “We’ll see who has evidence.”

There have been four arrests in the case to date, including Files, Haynes, Lynch and Charles Andrew Joseph Hendrix, 21, of Birmingham, who is charged with two counts of capital murder during a burglary in the first degree and one count of theft of property in the first degree for allegedly stealing Lazenby’s 2009 GMC Yukon.

Haynes’ case was bound over to a grand jury at a hearing two weeks ago. Preliminary hearings remain for Lynch and Hendrix. A date for those hearings has not been set.

Lazenby’s body was found at his home on Stonehill Road in Sylacauga July 27. The cause of death was multiple gunshot and stab wounds.

Tarrant police in Jefferson County recovered Lazenby’s Yukon earlier that day after it had been abandoned and set on fire.

Lazenby practiced law for nearly 30 years in the area and served as partner in the Talladega law firm Wooten, Thornton, Carpenter, O’Brien, Lazenby and Lawrence.

Solicitation of and conspiracy to commit murder are Class A felonies in Alabama, punishable upon conviction by 10 to 99 years or life in prison. Conviction for capital murder carries a penalty of life in prison without the possibility of parole or death by lethal injection.

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Keywords: Blake Lazenby, murder, Talladega, grand jury, preliminary hearing,

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