A Bangor man convicted of murder alleges his lawyers were so ineffective that he stopped sharing information with them.
F “Frank” Daly, 37, was found guilty in 2019 of intentional or knowing murder in the Jan. 7, 2018, death of 51-year-old Israel Lewis. Daly is challenging his conviction because he said he had ineffective counsel during the jury trial in Penobscot County Superior Court.
Daly testified Tuesday about how he said his trial attorneys, Jeffrey Silverstein and Kaylee Folster, did not have his best interests at heart and that they did not act on information that Daly provided them.
Tuesday’s hearing was the second day of testimony. A hearing on Oct. 17 outlined what Daly said was a lack of evidence in the initial trial and lack of cross examinations of witnesses that led to his convictions.
Daly said his lawyers did not prepare him to testify at his trial and he did not take the stand because of that. However, during the trial Daly did answer “Yes” when asked if he had enough time to make the decision about if he wanted to testify, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Bogue said.
Daly never indicated that he wanted to take the stand, Silverstein said. He added that Daly also would not divulge some information to the lawyers.
“He held facts close to the vest,” Silverstein said. “He did not give us information about potential defense points.”
At times, Daly said that he would tell the lawyers what he could but he did not make things clear, Folster said.
“Daly had trust issues, and he wasn’t ready to reveal things,” Folster said.
The case was purely circumstantial, Folster said. She was the main lawyer to interact with Daly, they both agreed.
The defense strategy going into the trial was “Daly said it was not him,” and it “was a 100% circumstantial case,” Folster said.
Daly said he had not received all of the discovery, information and evidence in the case by the trial, and that his lawyers were not acting upon information he had about where to find a missing witness.
Daly gave the lawyers an address of where that witness was, but the subpoena had a different address, he said.
There are three invoices from the private investigator hired to find the witness, and the investigator went to multiple addresses, Bogue said. Daly said he did not know about that.
Now that testimony is complete, both lawyers will file written briefs by Jan. 26 and the judge will issue an opinion in the weeks after.
Daly is incarcerated in the Maine State Prison. His earliest release date is April 22, 2054.
