Defense must pay prosecution witness’s airplane ticket

By Matt Pordum (contact)

Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2004 | 9:39 a.m.

The lawyer representing a 29-year-old man who allegedly killed a woman and left a knife in the chest of her 12-year-old son was ordered to pay for the plane ticket of a prosecution witness on Tuesday.

Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Tony Abbatangelo granted a motion by James Barfield, James Valdez's lawyer, to postpone Valdez's preliminary hearing, but only after lecturing him about how the sharing of evidence, known as discovery, operates.

"The obligation is on the defense attorneys," Abbatangelo told Barfield. "The district attorney's office has more than 20,000 felony cases and can't afford to call each and every defense attorney when a new piece of discovery is added to the case."

Abbatangelo said if Barfield had been duly diligent he would have checked with the district attorney's office about the case and thereby would have received new reports and evidence and would have been prepared for Tuesday's preliminary hearing.

Barfield tried to place the blame on the district attorney's office, but neither Abbatangelo nor the prosecutor handling the case would allow him.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Ed Kane said "every attorney in Clark County" knows that after the initial discovery is handed over to the defense it's then the defense attorney's responsibility to regularly check the case file to see if more reports, evidence or information has become part of the case.

Kane said he should have demanded Barfield pay for all of the expenses of the eight to 10 witnesses that were supposed to testify for the prosecution at the preliminary hearing, but instead focused on recouping the district attorney's losses on a plane ticket spent on one witness who flew down from Reno for the hearing.

Abbatangelo granted Kane's request for the monies spent on the plane ticket and rescheduled the preliminary hearing for Jan. 11. He also told Barfield to go to the district attorney's office as soon as possible to receive any additional discovery.

Kane told Abbatangelo and Barfield for the rest of the case "all communication will now be done in writing and no phone calls."

Valdez is facing charges of murder and attempted murder in the death of Teresa Tilden and the stabbing of her son Shilo Edsitty on Nov. 8.

Edsitty survived the attack at the Camden Tiara apartment complex, 2810 E. Warm Springs Road. En route to the hospital, Edsitty, a sixth grader at Schofield Middle School, told authorities that Valdez attacked him and his mother, police said.

Edsitty spent more than three weeks in the hospital.