The trial for an accused kidnapper that was scheduled to start Monday was delayed after a judge decided to turn the case over to the S.C. Attorney General's Office for a special prosecutor, according to the Second Circuit Solicitor's Office.
Michael Antwon Fuller, 24, was set to stand trial on charges of kidnapping, first-degree assault and battery, first-degree criminal sexual conduct, unlawful carrying of a pistol, possession of a stolen pistol and possession of a weapon during a violent crime.
Jury selection was expected to begin Monday afternoon, but Circuit Court Judge Doyet "Jack" Early decided to turn the case over to the attorney general's office after hearing a motion from Chief Public Defender Wallis Alves earlier Monday.
A message left with Alves, Fuller's attorney, was not returned by press time Monday.
The motion regarded some letters prosecutors had that were written by Fuller, according to Deputy Solicitor Beth Ann Young, who said it was "debatable" whether or not the state was entitled to have the letters.
"They weren't attorney-client privilege letters, but Wallis asserted they contained trial strategy of some sort," Young said. "While we disagreed with that, based on an abundance of caution, we consented to our office being recused based on that question."
State law dictates that the attorney general is the chief prosecuting officer of the state "with the authority to supervise the prosecution of all criminal cases and courts of record."
A prosecutor may request a transfer of prosecution for either "a conflict of interest or the appearance of a possible conflict of interest," according to Mark Powell, a spokesman for the attorney general's office.
"It's not an uncommon occurrence," he said.
The case could be prosecuted by either the attorney general's office or the solicitor's office in another judicial circuit, and Young said the Second Circuit typically opts for the latter.
It's not yet clear when the case will go to trial, and Young estimated it could be pushed back up to a year, but called that "a worst-case scenario."
Fuller is accused of ordering a woman at gunpoint to keep driving after he approached her in the parking lot of an Aiken motel and asked for a ride to Aiken Regional Medical Centers on Dec. 20, 2013, according to previous reports.
Police said that during the incident, Fuller committed sexual battery on the victim, who was able to shift the car into reverse and crash it into a tree in front of the hospital. She later escaped the car and flagged down help after regaining consciousness.
Teddy Kulmala covers the crime and courts beat for the Aiken Standard and has been with the newspaper since August 2012. He is a native of Williston and majored in communication studies at Clemson University.