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 on March 18 after prosecutors showed 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 49-year-old former Lockheed Martin software engineer is being held on a $10 million bond – 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 – as one defense attorney put it – “north of $100,000.”

“It could go up from there,” said Colorado Springs attorney Kent Gray, who represented former Fort Carson soldier Jomar Falu-Vives in his first-degree murder trial last year.

“He might find someone who would do it for less, but then you never know what you’re getting,” Gray added.

Gray also said there may be some lawyers who might be reluctant to represent someone accused of shooting a lawyer. Nozolino is accused of wounding attorney John Ciccolella in a sniper-style shooting in which a shot was fired through the window of his office, hitting him in the eye.

“Frankly, a defendant might be better off going outside the area because of that,” Gray said.

Former prosecutor turned defense attorney Cynthia McKedy estimated – based on what she’s read of the case – that a robust defense of Nozolino could cost about $350,000.

McKedy said it’s the kind of case where if it’s not taken by a law firm, it would swamp a single practitioner.

“This is an all or nothing case,” she said.

According to previous testimony in the case, Nozolino’s assets consist largely of his condominium and his retirement fund.

Before being taken off his case, Deputy Public Defender Rose Roy estimated a competent private attorney will go through those assets pretty quickly just in preparing for a case with such complex and serious charges.

The grand jury indictment handed up against Nozolino last July listed 31 counts which cover four separate shootings over an eight-year period. His next defense attorney will have to go through some 22,000 pages of discovery evidence, 3,604 photographs, 83 audiotapes and nine videotapes.

Roy predicted that within months, Nozolino will qualify for representation by her office after his assets are exhausted.

Taking on the case would represent a major investment of time and effort, said Colorado Springs defense attorney Shimon Kohn.

“For an attorney to competently represent Mr. Nozolino, they would, for the most part, have to forgo their private practice for a pretty decent amount of time,” Kohn said.

If the case came to trial, that lawyer would need the assistance of a second attorney as well for a trial that could last two months, he said.

Kohn said philosophically, he would not object to representing a defendant accused of trying to kill a lawyer and a judge.

But he said the reality for some local lawyers is that they either know personally or practice before one of the victims in the case.

“My preference would be not to take a case where I know the victim,” he said.

Several local lawyers, however, predicted that someone will step up and take on the high-profile case.

“We’d treat this case like any other,” McKedy said of the local criminal defense bar. “A defense attorney’s job is to protect a client’s rights. It doesn’t matter who the alleged victims are.”

Whoever that lawyer is, he or she will be due in court on April 8 when Nozolino has his next scheduled appearance.

For more court coverage, visit “The Sidebar” blog at gazettedev.gazette.com.

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