Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Holmes gets new lawyer

Lamar Holmes, 30, has been granted a different attorney following his request to Eighth Judicial District Circuit Judge Duncan Culpepper. According to a motion on file with the Nevada County Circuit Clerk, Culpepper has appointed Public Defender Anthony Biddle to represent Holmes on several charges.

Holmes has been held since December on several charges, including fleeing. On the day he was to be arraigned for an additional charge of robbery, Holmes escaped from the Nevada County Jail. He now faces charges for that escape and for a robbery during his time out of jail - a charge he has publically admitted to.

Holmes is accused of the Oct. 28 robbery of the Red-E-Mart on Highway 24 in Prescott. According to police records on file at the circuit clerks office, the masked robber took about $60 at gunpoint. Officers recovered a handgun and black mask during a traffic stop in December. Those items are believed to have been used in the robbery, according to the report. Holmes was later tied to the robbery and charged.

Facing Culpepper in February, Holmes requested that he have a new attorney. He cited the lack of time hed spent with the attorney hed been assigned. Though Culpepper declined at that hearing, he has since granted the request.