Duke lacrosse accuser wants new lawyer on murder charge

Crystal Mangum, 34, is charged in the April 2011 death of Reginald Daye, 46, who was stabbed with a kitchen knife during an argument at his Durham apartment, police said. They had been dating for about a month at the time of his death.

Mangum has been representing herself in the case for months after her court-appointed lawyer withdrew, saying her supporters had suggested she was unhappy with his defense.

In a brief court hearing Thursday morning, Mangum said she would like Scott Holmes to handle her defense. Prosecutors said she is entitled to a court-appointed lawyer, but she can't pick and choose.

Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson said it would be up to the trial judge to appoint a new defense lawyer.

Mangum was released last month on a $200,000 bond in advance of her July 8 trial.

She claimed in March 2006 that three players on the Duke lacrosse team trapped her inside a bathroom at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd., where she was performing as a stripper at a team party, and raped and sexually assaulted her.

Her story about the incident was so inconsistent that Attorney General Roy Cooper later declared the players innocent, saying there was no credible evidence against them.

In February 2010, police arrested Mangum after an altercation between her and a different boyfriend. In that incident, she was accused of assaulting the man in front of her children and setting some of his clothes on fire.

She was later convicted of child abuse, injury to personal property and resisting a public officer in the case, but prosecutors dismissed an arson charge after a jury couldn't reach a verdict.