For the second time this summer, a Pittsburgh attorney is expected to argue in court that Fayette County should pick up the expense for experts to testify on behalf of a Point Marion man charged with fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend last year.
Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty if jurors find James W. Van Divner guilty of first-degree murder in the slaying of Michelle Cable, 41.
Van Divner, 56, is also charged with the attempted homicide of Cable's 19-year-old son, William.
Van Divner's family hired Leonard E. Sweeney as the defense attorney last year, but he contends the family cannot afford the cost of expert testimony necessary to provide an adequate defense in a capital case.
In June, Judge John F. Wagner Jr. denied Sweeney's motion for the county to pay for several defense witnesses because the attorney did not provide an estimated price tag or proof Van Divner could not afford them.
Sweeney has requested a hearing before Wagner this afternoon to ask for a 90-day continuance of the trial and make a second attempt to ask the county to cover a portion of Van Divner's defense.
Last week, Sweeney filed a motion detailing the projected cost for experts. They include:
= a case investigator, who would charge $100 an hour, or $1,000 per day;
= a forensic psychologist, who would charge $145 per hour;
= a forensic pathologist, who would charge $300 per hour, or $2,500 for a day;
= a ballistics expert, who would charge $150 an hour, or $1,500 per day.
None of the experts are named. Sweeney is also seeking to hire co-counsel at a cost of $225 an hour. In March, Sweeney told President Judge Conrad Capuzzi he might not have the requisite experience to represent Van Divner during a death-penalty sentencing phase, court records show.
Van Divner has no savings to pay for the experts or second lawyer, though he was working at the time of the July 5, 2004, incident at Michelle Cable's Grindstone home, according to court records.
If the judge were to approve the expenditures, the experts would need 60 days to review the case and interview Van Divner, Sweeney said in his motion. The defense attorney would then need another 30 days after receiving the experts' reports so he can prepare for trial.
The potential cost of the experts could be a burden for Fayette County's budget, which already has been under close scrutiny by commissioners. For 2005, commissioners raised real estate taxes by 60 percent to balance the $22.6 million general-fund budget. In recent years, about $4.8 million in deficits and funding insufficiencies accumulated, officials have said.
Prosecutors announced last fall they intend to seek the death penalty for Van Divner, if he is convicted. A trial schedule maintained by the district attorney's office lists his trial for September.
Authorities arrested Van Divner in Washington County two days after the shooting. By then, Michelle Cable, who was shot in the head, had been declared dead at Allegheny General Hospital, in Pittsburgh. William Cable survived a gunshot to his neck.
State police at Belle Vernon believe Van Divner used a semi-automatic pistol to shoot the Cables, according to court records. Van Divner also is accused of firing a bullet at a neighbor, Larry Newman, who was at the Cables' home, but the shot missed.
Upon his arrest, Van Divner told a state trooper he would have killed himself if he knew Michelle Cable had died because he knew he could face execution, according to testimony at a preliminary hearing.
Van Divner, a former truck driver, has prior criminal convictions for kidnapping, aggravated assault and burglary, court records show. The kidnapping case, reported to state police at Greensburg in 1993, involved his estranged wife, Judith.
He pleaded guilty in that case and was released from prison in March 2003 after serving 10 years in prison.
