MURDER FOR HIRE TRIAL WILL START TODAY

Diaz Fails In Attempt To Fire His Lawyer

A 33-year-old man who allegedly tried to hire someone to kill a
Brown County narcotics agent and a confidential informant will stand
trial today, despite his efforts to fire his lawyer.

Leo Manuel Diaz in June pleaded not guilty to two counts of
solicitation of first-degree intentional homicide. If convicted on
both charges he faces 25 years in prison.

At a hearing Monday, Diaz claimed that his lawyer, Eric Pangburn,
had a conflict of interest because he represented in an unrelated
case a man who Diaz claimed was a witness in an unrelated federal
investigation against him.

In a discussion with Brown County Circuit Court Judge William
Atkinson, Pangburn acknowledged representing the man, but knew
nothing of an ongoing federal investigation. Pangburn said his
representation of the other man had nothing to do with Diaz's case
and didn't see it as a conflict.

Atkinson asked Diaz for more information about the alleged federal
case, but he was unable to provide specifics. Atkinson ruled that
there was not enough information to remove Pangburn from the case
and scuttle the jury trial.

After Atkinson rejected the move, Diaz asked to have Pangburn fired
outright, a move Atkinson also quashed.

"This is the same doggone motion I heard two minutes ago," Atkinson
said. "I'm not going to allow you to fire him on the eve of trial."

According to the felony criminal complaint filed in May, Diaz began
talking with another inmate while in the Brown County Jail on a drug
case and allegedly said he wanted to have the narcotics agent and
the confidential informant who helped build the case killed.

Diaz also allegedly told the inmate that he wanted his co-defendant
from the drug case killed, but said the drug cartel he worked with
would take care of that once the man was deported to Mexico.

Diaz said he would pay more for killing a law enforcement officer
because "killing a cop was going to bring more heat and be harder to
do," the complaint said.

During conversations at the jail, Diaz allegedly offered to pay the
inmate $5,000 to kill the informant and $10,000 to kill the
now-former narcotics agent, a nine-year veteran of the Brown County
Sheriff's Department. The agent rotated out of the county's drug
unit as part of routine personnel changes.

Diaz said he was owed $25,000 in drug debt and promised to set up
the other inmate in the drug trade if he went through with the
killings, the complaint said. Diaz also offered the inmate a BMW
once both men were killed.

Drug agents recorded a conversation between Diaz and the inmate
where they discussed the offer, but it was in less detail than in
previous conversations, according to the complaint. Diaz wrote on a
piece of paper "Kill them both. Don't leave any witnesses," and then
tore up the paper, according to the complaint.

Diaz told the inmate to make a phone call and say "It's a beautiful
day" as a signal to indicate both men were killed, the complaint said.

Diaz is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail in the murder-for-hire case.

The underlying drug case was closed earlier this month when Brown
County Circuit Court Judge J.D. McKay sentenced Diaz to five years
in prison and four years of release on extended supervision for
selling more than 110 pounds of marijuana -- with a street value
of more than $170,000 -- in Brown County.