A judge has allowed Bruce J. Nozolino to call private lawyers from jail after ruling that the Colorado Springs anti-tax activist was not entitled to a public defender in his pending first-degree-murder trial.
William Sylvester, chief district court judge in Arapahoe and Douglas counties, made the ruling March 18 after prosecutors showed that Nozolino had assets of $221,556, thus making him ineligible for a publicly financed criminal defense.
But judging from interviews last week with several local defense attorneys, it will take at least half if not all of those assets to mount a robust and competent defense for Nozolino because of the complexity of the case and the seriousness of the charges.
And he might find some local lawyers reluctant to take the case, they said.
The former Lockheed Martin software engineer, 49, is being held on a $10 million bail — the highest in recent memory in El Paso County — on charges that he killed his ex-wife’s lover, shot and wounded her divorce attorney and tried to kill the judge who presided over the divorce.
If the case goes to trial, most criminal defense lawyers said Nozolino can expect to pay a fee “north of $100,000.”
“It could go up from there,” said Colorado Springs attorney Kent Gray.
