By Lucky Kidd
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Kansas Supreme Court has ordered a new trial for a Hutchinson man who was convicted of first degree felony murder in a case where he went through multiple attorneys and ultimately had to represent himself.
Brennan Trass was convicted in a 2019 jury trial in the August 2015 shooting death of Jose Morales at a residence in the 300 block of East 7th. Morales was found on the floor of his residence with multiple gunshot wounds, which he later died from after being taken to the hospital.
The shooting came during a methamphetamine transaction Morales and Trass had started the day before, during which Trass said he grew paranoid that Morales and others were planning to kill him.
In the 3 ½ years between the crime and trial, Trass went through a total of 11 attorneys, all of whom withdrew from the case due to attorney-client conflicts, much of which focused on Trass’ wanting his defense based on a claim of self-defense.
Two weeks before his trial after two attorneys pulled out Reno County District Judge Trish Rose ordered Trass to represent himself in a suppression hearing and at trial, on the final day of which he became frustrated with court rulings was removed from the court, with standby counsel, who was one of the last two attorneys appointed to representing him, for the rest of the trial.
In a decision authored by justice Melissa Standridge, the court held Trass’ right to counsel under the 6th Amendment to the United States Constitution was violated, which constituted structural error affecting mechanisms of the trial and reversed his murder conviction and that for criminal possession of a firearm.
The opinion also brought up a number of other claims raised by Trass and his appeal counsel, on one of which it was stated there was sufficient evidence presented to support the jury’s finding that Trass killed Morales while possessing methamphetamine, the basis for the felony murder charge.
In reversing and remanding the case back to Reno County for a new trial, the Supreme Court also directed that a different judge hear that trial.
