The lawyers for the homeless Arizona woman who left her children in a hot car have left the case, AZ Family reports.
Benjamin Taylor told the judge he had an “ethical” conflict with the defendant, Shanesha Taylor. Her other lawyer, John Agra, said that Taylor failed to pay him.
Taylor has been assigned a public defender to handle her upcoming trial.
Taylor was arrested in March for leaving her two children in a hot car while she went to a job interview. Her tearful mug shot went viral, causing a New Jersey woman to start an online fund for the single mother that raised over $100,000 in donations.
The child neglect charges against Taylor were dropped and her children were returned to her custody as long as Taylor agreed to put $60,000 of the donated money into a trust fund for her children. As of October, however, Taylor has yet to deposit the money. Prosecutors reportedly agreed to reduce the required funds to $30,000. Taylor claims she didn’t put the money into trusts because her children won’t get the money if they decide not to go to college. She now faces up to 18 months in jail for felony child abuse.
Another of Taylor’s supporters, Rev. Jarrett Maupin, says he has abandoned Taylor’s cause because of her spending on designer items. “We had someone call my office and alert her attorney to the fact that she spent $6,000 at a music studio in Tempe to finish her baby daddy’s rap album,” Maupin told the Phoenix’s FOX 10. “That’s not what people gave her that money for.”
Taylor’s trial is scheduled for Dec. 10.