photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Aaron Wright, left, appears with court-appointed attorney Gary West on Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Douglas County District Court.

The Douglas County Public Defender’s Office has asked to withdraw from representing a defendant in a Lawrence murder case, but a judge on Wednesday denied that request after ascertaining that the defendant wanted to keep working with his attorneys.

Public defender Gary West filed a motion earlier this month stating that he and his colleague Madeline Muller desired to withdraw from representing Aaron Wright because Wright had expressed dissatisfaction with them on “multiple occasions,” including in two letters to their supervising attorney, and had also attempted to file his own motions even though he has legal counsel.

Wright has been charged with second-degree murder in the stabbing death of 35-year old Jina Reyes-Woehler, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and mother of two whose body was found Aug. 29, 2025, behind the vacant VFW building in the 1800 block of Massachusetts Street. He is also charged in two other cases with burglary, attempted theft, criminal threat, battery on a law enforcement officer and disorderly conduct.

The Public Defender’s Office had sought to withdraw from all three cases and orally reiterated that desire on Wednesday.

In an on-the-record conversation, Judge Amy Hanley questioned Wright and West about the apparent discord in their relationship. Wright indicated that he didn’t want his lawyers removed but said he wanted better communication with his legal team. West disagreed that communication had been an issue.

“I would respectfully disagree that there hasn’t been communications about issues he has raised,” West told Hanley, noting that Wright had written letters to West’s boss expressing dissatisfaction.

Hanley noted that Wright had also taken it upon himself to write letters directly to the court. She told him that it wasn’t proper for her to read them since judges are not allowed to have ex parte communications with parties appearing before them. She further told Wright that his attorneys were competent and experienced and that forming a legal strategy was their “call,” not his. His exclusive purview, she said, was deciding whether to take a plea or to testify or to take the Fifth Amendment.

Last year, an attorney appointed in the two less serious of Wright’s cases was allowed to withdraw after he claimed that he could not be effective. In his motion to quit representation, attorney Razmi Tahirkheli told Hanley that Wright had been filing his own motions with the court and was insisting that Tahirkheli “adopt those motions,” though Tahirkheli said he could not do so in good faith. Tahirkheli also wrote that Wright’s communications with him regarding his cases were “nonsensical and immaterial to the facts of the case.”

After Tahirkheli was allowed to withdraw in the two cases, Hanley appointed the Public Defender’s Office to take over.

“I want you talking,” she told Wright and West Wednesday.

Wright’s trial in the murder case is scheduled to begin on Aug. 3.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Aaron Wright, left, appears with court-appointed attorney Gary West on Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Douglas County District Court.