ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – An Orange County judge Wednesday denied a double-murder defendant’s request to remove his court-appointed attorney as representation, clearing the way for jury selection to begin Thursday.
Jaylen Edgar, 18, was 17 when he was charged with two counts of murder and several counts of attempted murder in the 2024 downtown Orlando shooting during Halloween celebrations.
Edgar is accused of opening fire in a crowd of people celebrating Halloween in downtown Orlando, killing two of them — 25-year-old Tyrek Hill and 19-year-old Timothy Schmidt Jr. — and wounding seven others.
He faces charges of possession of a firearm by a minor, culpable negligence with personal injury, two counts of first-degree murder and seven counts of attempted first-degree murder. Edgar was 17 when the shooting occurred and was charged as an adult.
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In a handwritten letter filed Tuesday and penned to “your Honor,” Edgar alleged conflict of counsel and claimed he was being ineffectively represented on purpose, by his attorney, amid his struggle to explain the ”intrusive thoughts and mental state of surreality” he claims to have experienced on the night of the shooting.
Edgar also claims that the state has been trying to force a plea deal upon him, stating he doesn’t want to discuss any offers until he’s ”explored all of (his) defensive options.”
“Clearly, in the state’s efforts to force-feed a 50-year plea deal down my throat opposed to the threat of natural life in the department of corrections, my attorney has deliberately failed to include reasonable hypothesis of my mental state of psychosis during the alleged commission of the crime,” Edgar wrote, going on to call for another mental-health evaluation “to explore the reasonable hypothesis of incompetency.”
During what is called a Nelson Hearing on Wednesday, Judge Keith Carsten denied Edgar’s request, suggesting that Edgar was unable to effectively demonstrate that Junior Barrett was providing ineffective counsel.
“The request to discharge Mr. Barrett is denied,” Carsten said.
Barrett, who was appointed to represent Edgar from the Office of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel, will remain at Edgar’s side Thursday, when jury selection is expected to get underway. The trial is scheduled to start next Tuesday.
Before jury selection begins on Thursday, Judge Carsten will hold a Richardson hearing to explore whether a violation was committed during the discovery process. That hearing is set to start at 8:45 a.m.
The families of the two victims who died have since filed suit against the city and the operator of Wall Street Plaza, the latter of whom sought distance from the litigation in the owner’s comments to News 6 that the incident didn’t happen on their property. Plaintiffs allege failures related to things such as security, training, and lighting.
[WATCH: Families of Orlando Halloween mass shooting victims file suit ‘to get answers’]
The city made changes in the aftermath of the shooting to end downtown Orlando’s “street-party atmosphere,” in large part by opening Orange Avenue and its side streets to regular traffic during the night.
This was paired with a city ordinance in place since May 2023 that requires certain bars to pay for police protection. It was part of a crackdown on crime following violence downtown in the years leading up, unmoved as a judge in September dismissed a lawsuit filed by several downtown bars for monetary damages and a permanent injunction against the ordinance.