Randall Woodley will get his day in court, again

Randall Woodley will get his day in court, again.

Lake County Common Pleas Judge Robert L. Collins Jr. granted a motion made by defense attorney Aaron Baker to withdraw Woodley’s guilty plea on two counts of abduction in September in connection with from the store in Mentor to Cleveland.

On Dec. 27, 2010, the two victims – one 18, one 12 – were approached by Woodley, whom they did not know, as they left Walmart.

Woodleyof Eastlake and verbally intimidated the man and boy, Mentor Police said. When they refused, he still entered their car without permission and demanded they drive him to the Collinwood neighborhood on the east side of Cleveland.

Woodley was scheduled to be sentenced in October by Judge Collins. However, at the beginning of the hearing, Woodley said he wanted to dismiss his attorney, Gregory Gilson, vacate his guilty pleas and go to trial. Judge Collins granted his request ot find a new lawyer.

Baker argued that Woodley did not receive competent legal representation in this case.

“I do not question Mr. Gilson’s competency as a whole,” said Baker. “I question his competency as he operated in the scope of this case. Mr. Gilson is very experienced. He’s been practicing for over 39 years and he’s never been disciplined by the state of Ohio.”

Baker said Gilson’s did not hire a defense investigator to interview more than 20 witnesses in the case. In addition,  Baker said there is no indication that  Gilson interviewed any of the witnesses except Woodley, pointing out he found no interview notes of witnesses.

But Lake County Prosecutor Mark Bartolotta argued just because there are no notes does not mean Gilson didn’t interview any of the witnesses.

Bartolotta challenged Baker’s argument that Gilson did not sufficiently prepare for Woodley’s defense.

“We don’t have anything here on the record that no, Mr. Gilson did not talk to any witnesses, no, Mr. Gilson did not have his case prepared,” said Bartolotta. “I’ve been doing this for almost 20 years now, and have had probably hundreds of trials and I have not once ever written down an opening statement, never once written down the direct examination of a witness, never once written down a closing argument at the end of trial. So you wouldn’t find these things in my file either. Does that make me incompetent or not prepared for trial?”

Nevertheless, Judge Collins decided Woodley had the right to withdraw his guilty plea and have his case tried before a jury of his peers to decide his guilt or innocence on all of the original charges of four counts of abduction and other charges including carrying a concealed weapon, and having a weapon under a disability.

The jury trial will be held on January 10.