Alwi v. State

The trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the defendant's existing counsel's motion to withdraw and his proposed new counsel's motion for a continuance.

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A jury convicted Abdulrahman Hassan Alwi of rape, armed robbery, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, and he was sentenced to three consecutive life terms plus 25 years. Alwi appeals the denial of his motion for new trial, arguing as his sole enumeration of error that the trial court erred in denying his existing counsel’s motion to withdraw and his proposed new counsel’s motion for a continuance. We affirm for the reasons set forth below.

Alwi was indicted on September 12, 2012, and his trial counsel filed an entry of appearance on September 24, 2012. Alwi’s counsel filed a motion to withdraw as counsel on March 18, 2013, the morning his case was scheduled for trial, asserting that she and Alwi had “a conflict of irreconcilable differences as to how to proceed in this case”; that counsel had received information from the State as late as two days earlier, March 16, 2013; and that counsel had not been paid to continue the case. After the case was called, the trial court addressed the issue with counsel and Alwi. Alwi told the court that he was “not comfortable going to trial with my counsel I have right now” because they disagreed about how to defend his case. Alwi said it would take eight weeks to obtain new counsel. Although his counsel could not go into details due to attorney-client privilege, she said the issues between the two first arose during the preceding week and that the two were “diametrically opposed” on some issues. Alwi’s counsel believed that they had reached an impasse that, in her opinion, could not be cured. The trial court denied Alwi’s request for an eight-week continuance, but moved the case to second on the calendar, thus granting Alwi a two-day continuance.

Alwi v. State

The trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the defendant's existing counsel's motion to withdraw and his proposed new counsel's motion for a continuance.

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