It's been over a week since the shocking arrest of As I Lay Dying frontman Tim Lambesis, for allegedly attempting to hire a hitman to murder his wife. Lambesis was arraigned last Thursday, May 9th, and plead not guilty to one count of solicitation of murder. Later in the day, video footage from the courtroom revealed the proescution's case against Lambesis, which includes audio of him telling an undercop cop posing as a hitman that he wanted his wife dead.
Over the weekend, Lambesis' defense attoryney, Anthony Salerno revealed Lambesis' defense in a new interview.
Salerno spoke to Artisan News Service and revealed that his client was originally going to be charged with conspiracy to commit murder which holds a maximum of a life sentence but Salerno got the charge down to solitication of murder which has a maximum penalty of nine years in prison.
At the time of the interview, Salerno had yet to see see any of the prosecution's evidence but was claiming that a police informant set Lambesis up stating:
“I would anticipate myself asking for quite a bit of additional discovery, particularly on this person I strongly suspect is a snitch and is an informant for the police and was really creating this whole scenario and sort of setting Tim up. I believe there’s a good probability he may be a police informant. And that information is only available internally with the police department, or in this case the San Diego Sheriff’s Department, and through the D.A.’s office, and that’s something I’m gonna have to explore as well.”
He later went as far as to say that Tim's estranged wife's brother, who is a sheriff in the department had something to do with this alleged setup:
"There's one other element to this, too, which is… I don't want to start to make accusations on this one unless I have some more information, but I will point out that Tim's wife's brother, I understand, is a San Diego Sheriff's deputy, and I think I would be remiss if I didn't fully explore that, 'cause that is a litte bit… it's at the bare minimum very coincidental, and it may be more than that."
You can hear Salerno's full audio interview below.
It's clear that Lambesis brought in a high-end criminal attorney who knows his way around the ins and outs of legal system. He is already doing an excellent job in planting seeds of doubt, which is his job. Remember, the prosecution has to prove his unqestionable guilt, he doesn't have to prove his innocence.
It's going to be a long road for the defense should this alleged audio tape of Lambesis plotting against his wife come up. As previously reported, the prosecution has a tape with audio in which Lambesis confirmed to the hitman/informant that he wanted his wife gone after handing the "hitman" an envelope with one thousand dollars in cash, Meggan's address, photos of his wife, security gate codes instructions on how and when to enter the home.
We will be staying with this trial as more develops throughout the week.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYPIixEBFyE[/youtube]
[via Lambgoat]
