Judge - No extra money to defend serial killer

BATON ROUGE, La. -- A judge Thursday refused to force the state to find more money to pay for the defense of a suspect in the south Louisiana serial killings.

Defense attorney Michael Mitchell had asked Judge Richard Anderson to help him get more money, saying he did not have enough money or people to adequately defend Derrick Todd Lee.

But Anderson said Lee, who appeared in court with several attorneys, seemed to be receiving adequate counsel. The judge also noted that the city's indigent defense board had a small amount of money that could be used for Lee's case.

Anderson also said Mitchell did not follow the proper procedures in making his request and did not offer enough information about how much money he needed.

Lee's attorneys "can't go anywhere and ask for an open checkbook, and that's precisely what we have here today," Anderson said.

Mitchell said he planned to appeal the judge's decision.

Anderson's ruling came at the end of Lee's second court appearance, a pretrial hearing in the case of Charlotte Murray Pace, one of six south Louisiana women whose deaths were linked by DNA evidence.

Witnesses found

The hearing came a day after prosecutors filed a motion saying that they have witnesses who can identify Lee in connection with the Pace murder. Also Wednesday, the state Supreme Court rejected one of Mitchell's attempts to have Anderson removed as the presiding judge in the case.

Lee, arrested earlier this year, is scheduled to be tried for first-degree murder on March 1 in the beating and stabbing death of Pace, whose body was found in her home in May 2002.

East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Doug Moreau said it is the only case in which the victim was found soon after her murder and was not dumped outside, which "makes for very accurate determination of cause of death."

Moreau said it is the only case in which the victim was found soon after her murder and was not dumped outside, which "makes for very accurate determination of cause of death."