The Hamilton County Public Defender's Office can't represent a 43-year-old man charged in the 2000 death of a woman whose body was found in a garbage can in East Ridge because of a conflict of interest, an attorney announced Thursday.
Defender Matthew Rogers said he began reviewing a series of police reports that prosecutors provided in early December about Jason Sanford, a Michigan man indicted for first- degree murder in August.
He soon realized his office had represented and is representing Sarah Perry's spouse in criminal cases.
"The primary issue would be using representing Mr. Sanford and representing the spouse of the deceased [at the same time]," Rogers told Criminal Court Judge Tom Greenholtz. "I think it would prevent us from giving him a zealous defense."
Greenholtz agreed and said he will appoint an attorney for Sanford today since the 43-year-old can't afford one.
"You have an absolute right under the system to have not just a lawyer, but a lawyer who is competent and a lawyer who is free of any conflicts of interest," Greenholtz said.
Perry, 21, called police around 4 a.m. on June 14, 2000, saying she was concerned Sanford, her estranged boyfriend, might be inside her apartment, police said. She was last seen that day around 8:30 a.m. The next day, two 12-year-old boys playing in Spring Creek off the 1600 block of Springvale Avenue in East Ridge came upon a garbage can. When one boy dared the other to open the lid, they found a partially nude Perry inside.
A grand jury returned an indictment for Sanford's murder charge after Hamilton County District Neal Pinkston presented the case in August. Police said the arrest came from nailing Sanford on a few inconsistencies he gave during an interview in the early 2000s.
Contact staff writer Zack Peterson at zpeterson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6347. Follow on Twitter @zackpeterson918.