WOODLAND — Marco Topete, the accused killer of a Yolo County sheriff’s deputy, has a new attorney. Again.

Yolo Superior Court Judge Paul Richardson relieved defense attorney Tom Purtell from the death-penalty case Thursday morning on the advice of the doctor who has been treating him for an acute stroke the 83-year-old lawyer suffered on April 16.

“It is his advice that Mr. Purtell not get involved in the death-penalty trial,” Richardson said.

Purtell has been replaced by Dwight Samuel, an experienced Sacramento defense attorney who previously represented one of the three defendants in Yolo County’s “Halloween homicides” trial back in 2006. He will serve as co-counsel to Topete’s lead attorney, Hayes Gable III.

Richardson set a new trial date of Aug. 1, though it’s unclear whether Samuel — who has a three-week federal court trial scheduled in late June and early July — will be prepared to proceed by then.

Topete, 38, is charged with the June 15, 2008, fatal shooting of Yolo County Sheriff’s Deputy Jose “Tony” Diaz following a high-speed pursuit in Dunnigan.

He has undergone several changes in attorneys since his arrest nearly three years ago. He was first represented by the Yolo County Public Defender’s Office until it declared a conflict of interest several weeks into the case. Gable and Purtell were then appointed as his lawyers.

Last summer, Topete — frustrated over the lawyers’ unsuccessful attempts to delay a fall 2010 trial — was granted a motion to relieve the attorneys and represent himself. But he backtracked in December after discovering that investigators and experts were reluctant to work on the case.

Opening arguments had been scheduled to begin on April 19 following five weeks of jury selection. Whether the court will be able to retain the current pool of about 90 qualified jurors remains to be seen.

Gable and prosecuting attorney Garrett Hamilton indicated Thursday that keeping the panel would be unrealistic, given the lengthy delay in the trial and the hardships that are bound to arise between now and Aug. 1. Gable also questioned whether the jurors would heed the judge’s admonition to not discuss the pending trial.

“It’s human nature for people to talk about their experiences,” Gable said. “No matter what the court says to these people, they’re going to talk about it.”

Samuel also noted that, being new to the case, he did not have an opportunity to establish a relationship with the potential jurors, a situation he described as “unfortunate to Mr. Topete.”

Richardson said while he appreciated the attorneys’ concerns, “we are where we are.”

“We have gone to great length to select this group, and I don’t want to let them go,” the judge said, adding that the court has the option of bringing in a new jury pool if much of the existing panel is lost to hardships.

The potential jurors are due back in court Tuesday for further instructions in the case. A status conference is set for May 20.

— Reach Lauren Keene at [email protected] or (530) 747-8048. Follow her at www.twitter.com/laurenkeene

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