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Conflict of interest cited. W-B man charged in the Plymouth bar shooting.
WILKES-BARRE – The trial of homicide suspect Jeremy Kendricks was postponed Monday after a county judge allowed Kendricks’ attorney to withdraw from the case.
Attorney Demetrius Fannick asked Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judge Thomas Burke to allow him to withdraw from the case, citing a conflict of interest that surfaced.
Fannick said Monday he has represented a client that could affect the case and felt a problem would arise if he continued to represent Kendricks.
Kendricks, 27, of Wilkes-Barre, was charged with the shooting death of Kirk Lipscomb, 26, of Scranton, in the Bull Run Tavern in Plymouth last September.
Kendricks’ trial, which was scheduled to begin on Sept. 8, was continued generally to allow him time to secure private counsel or a public defender.
Fannick said in court papers filed last week that prosecutors had uncovered information “which creates a direct conflict of interest with his continued representation of the defendant.”
According to police, they responded to the Bull Run Tavern at the corner of East Main Street and Washington Avenue at about 1:23 a.m., Sept. 20, for a report of gunshots fired and multiple victims. Upon arriving, police found some people fleeing the area and others screaming for help.
Police found a man, later identified as Lipscomb, lying on the dance floor near a bench and bleeding from the abdomen, and a second victim, later identified as David Green, lying in a hallway and complaining he was shot in the upper back of his leg.
Lipscomb was transported to Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Plains Township, where he was pronounced dead in the operating room four hours later.
Police said a witness, Sherman Anderson, provided a description of the shooter, whom he said has a street name of “Squirm.” An investigation led police to identify the man as Kendricks, according to police.
Anderson said he arrived at the bar with Lipscomb and Green, and that sometime between 1:15 and 1:20 a.m., Kendricks pulled out a silver revolver and placed it to Lipscomb’s neck, police said.
Anderson told police Lipscomb grabbed the gun and pushed it away, but Kendricks brought it back forward, pointed it at Lipscomb and fired. A struggle for the gun ensued, and both men fell to the floor; upon hearing more shots, Anderson ran for cover by a pool table, Anderson told police.