Officials with the Dallas County District Attorney’s office have confirmed to Dallas Voice that the trial of Christopher (Christian) Colbert, charged with the murder of Ron Shumway in 2015, has been delayed until Nov. 5. Colbert is a former Dallas Voice photographer.

Colbert, who shared a house with Shumway, is accused of killing him and burying his body in the backyard of the house in Oak Cliff, and then posing as Shumway to sell the house and to steal the proceeds from Shumway’s bank account. Colbert was arrested in Los Angeles after Dallas Voice turned over to Dallas police photos of where he was living and his cell phone number .

Colbert was extradited to Dallas County in June 2016 and has been jailed at Lew Sterrett Justice Center ever since.

When Dallas detectives interviewed Colbert in the Los Angeles jail, Colbert said Shumway was drunk and attacked him, and he admitted killing in self defense Shumway by strangling him with his hands. But the autopsy did not support this claim, and once he was returned to Dallas, Colbert pleaded innocent.

The trial had been set for this month but has now been postponed. Among the reasons may be motions Colbert has filed to replace his court-appointed attorney.

In March 2018, Colbert wrote to Dallas County District Clerk Felicia Pitre requesting a mental health evaluation and dismissal of his attorney.

“I need to fire my lawyer …” he wrote two weeks before a March 2018 trial date. “He has strung me along for 21 months and now it’s 2 weeks before trial and I have no information about my defense case he was supposed to be building or any information from the investigator he was supposed to send out.”

He said it was four months since he’d seen the attorney and that the attorney had repeatedly failed to answer a phone call or respond to written correspondence.

Colbert claimed that when he asked his attorney questions about the trial, “he got mad and raised his voice. He asked me if I was stupid, told me he didn’t have time to teach me and that I should have learned all this by listening to other inmates’ stories in jail about their court cases.”

Colbert said he’d been asking for a psyche evaluation “so I can get an MHMR lawyer.”

“I’ve told him I take psych meds and I have trouble understanding what he’s talking about and he’s refused & ignored my requests,” he wrote about his interactions with his court-appointed attorney.

Colbert said he was requesting a lawyer who would explain his rights and options. “I’m bi-polar and have post traumatic stress disorder,” he wrote.

He didn’t explain the origins of his PTSD, whether it is a result of the murder, fleeing and hiding for six months or another event. But, he did say, “I have panic attacks and have blackouts where I can’t remember things.”

Colbert said he wrote to Tracy Holmes, the judge who will preside at his trial, several times “letting her know what’s going on.”

He also wrote, “I don’t know why I’ve been here for 21 months. One time I went 8 months without hearing from” the attorney.

He ended his letter to Pitre with “Please help.”

A month later, Colbert wrote Pitre another letter after filing a motion to dismiss counsel. He wrote that on March 27, his court-appointed attorney showed up and told Colbert he can’t be fired: “He said the only way I can get a new lawyer is if I pay for one,” Colbert claimed. “I know this is not true. He has not given me effective counsel which violates the 6th Amendment, my right to effective counsel.”

In explaining how the attorney has been ineffective, Colbert told Pitre, “He can’t remember important facts about my case which can completely botch my case in trial.”

Colbert also claimed his attorney “never writes anything down” and said “I’ve requested 4 motions to be filed, none have been.” He also claims his attorney said Colbert can’t see his discovery file “because it’s illegal.”

He ends this letter requesting help to file “a formal complaint against counsel,” and asks for the forms and information on how to find a new attorney.

David Taffet