“I’d like to go in a different direction and hire another attorney,” Ragsdale said.

At a hearing Wednesday in Provo’s 4th District Court, Judge Claudia Laycock dismissed Skordas as Ragsdale’s attorney and assigned him a public defender. Ragsdale said he is trying to hire a new lawyer, but is having difficulties coming up with the money because his assets have been frozen pending the outcome of a civil suit filed against him by his deceased wife’s family.

Ragsdale’s family has said a cocktail of psychiatric medications chemically altered his brain and caused him to shoot his wife. Tamara Ragsdale said her brother was taking the antidepressants Paxil and Doxepin, along with two kinds of testosterone, Ritalin, Provigil and Valium, at the direction of a nurse practitioner who had been providing counseling for him and his wife, Kristy.

Tamara Ragsdale said her brother’s use of those psychiatric drugs will play a major role in his defense.

“Certainly, the huge combination of SSRIs and other prescription drugs David was subjected to played a role in the tragedy, and that is backed up by several experts in the field from across the country,” she said. SSRIs are a class of antidepressants that includes Paxil.

Ragsdale’s sister did not say whether Skordas was pursuing that angle for his defense, and did not say why he was unhappy with Skordas.

“I could, but I’m not going to,” Tamara Ragsdale said. She said the family would have more to say in the future about the way the case has been handled.

Deputy County Attorney Craig Johnson said Ragsdale indicated that he and Skordas disagreed on legal strategy.

“The fact Mr. Skordas is off the case seems to indicate that he wasn’t going to go after that strategy. But that’s something that Mr. Ragsdale and his sister apparently think is the right move, and they’re going to go forward with finding an attorney who will support that,” Johnson said.

The Utah County Attorney’s Office has until Aug. 1 to decide whether it will seek the death penalty against Ragsdale. Johnson said Ragsdale’s decision to seek new counsel, which indicates that he will likely take the case to trial, could affect the prosecution’s decision on the death penalty.

“Mr. Ragsdale is basically saying, ‘I’m not willing to relieve them of any of the pain from this murder, and I’m going to make them testify again.’ And that really weighs heavily with our decision that we have to make in the next three weeks,” Johnson said.

Johnson said the prosecution had been discussing a possible plea bargain with Skordas before he filed to withdraw from the case at Ragsdale’s request.

Ragsdale asked for several months to find a new attorney, but Laycock said she was unwilling to delay the case for that long. A public defender was assigned to the case, and Laycock scheduled another hearing for Aug. 6.

Johnson and Laycock both praised Skordas, and Laycock indicated that dropping him from the defense may be a risky move on Ragsdale’s part.

“I hope it works out for you Mr. Ragsdale. Mr. Skordas is a very fine attorney,” Laycock said. “He’s one of the best in the state.”

Laycock also ordered Tamara Ragsdale to turn over evidence to the public defenders. Ragsdale granted her power of attorney and Skordas gave her the evidence, including crime scene photos, after Ragsdale asked him to withdraw from the defense. Laycock and Johnson expressed concern that the evidence could end up in the public eye.

Ragsdale was arrested on Jan. 6 after allegedly shooting his wife to death in front of an LDS meetinghouse as she walked into church with her mother. At his preliminary hearing last month, witnesses testified that he emptied the clip of a 9mm semiautomatic handgun into her, continuing to fire after her body hit the ground. The Ragsdales had been having marital problems and were estranged at the time of the shooting.

• Jeremy Duda can be reached at 344-2561 or jduda@heraldextra.com.