A Fort Riley man facing 2nd-degree murder charges will be seeking new counsel.
Tierre Wall, 26, was in the Riley County District Courthouse Monday morning for what was originally a motions hearing, but he and his attorney, Brenda Jordan, met in Judge David Stutzman’s chambers before proceedings.
After nearly a half hour, all parties returned to the court room and Stutzman granted Jordan’s request to withdraw from the case. Jordan was Wall’s second attorney so far during this trial and Stutzman ordered Wall to appear again on Jan. 4 to determine if a new attorney has been found or if another is to be provided. His Jan. 11 trial date has thus been delayed.
Jordan said her reasoning from leaving the case was due to “conflict of interest” and declined to elaborate further.
Wall allegedly shot 27-year-old Casey Lindley in the forehead during a confrontation at the intersection of Skyway Drive and Kansas Highway 114 near Ogden during the early morning hours on March 10.
Wall maintains he acted in self defense after Lindley, his fiance and his two friends got out of their vehicle and approached Wall’s at the intersection.
The incident started after Lindley’s fiance, Kristina Harrison, picked Lindley and his two coworkers at Auth-Florence, also known as Florence Manufacturing, at 2 a.m. following their shift.
She testified on Sept. 25 that she was followed in a red pickup by Wall and a passenger from the same parking lot. Harrison said before they’d left the parking lot, her and her company had commented on Wall, who was having difficulty backing his pickup out of a parking space. After that, Harrison said Wall was tailgating her. She said she felt threatened and “brake-checked” Wall several times.
When Harrison’s black Chevrolet Trailblazer was approaching a stop sign at the intersection of Skyway Drive and Kansas Highway 114, she said there was discussion of getting out of the Trailblazer once stopped and confronting the driver of the red pickup — Wall — to ask what the problem was.
From there, things escalated quickly and fatally.
Lindley quickly approached the driver’s side of the red pickup with Harrison not far behind, while Lindley’s coworkers approached Wall’s acquaintance on the passenger side of the vehicle. Arguments and fighting broke out and Harrison said Lindley was shot in the forehead by Wall after Lindley had tried to block the gun out of his direction.
From there, Harrison went to Lindley’s aid and Wall and his passenger — who was in a fight with Lindley’s co-workers — left the scene. Wall dropped his passenger off, made a stop by an ATM for cash and fled.
He was later arrested in Georgia after Wall had turned himself in.
Wall, who has no prior criminal history, said the act was done in self defense and that Lindley provoked the incident.
