iMO
It seems JP took on this case from the very beginning as a gamble. He knew as did everyone else that at some point his client would run out of money, and be declared indigent. Apparently his initial gamble was that when this happened he would be paid by the state once that happened.
He doubled down on this when the state announced the intent to seek the death penalty, and he stayed on the case. Either he thought that if he found his own death penalty, qualified, co-counsel that he could be paid by the state as the second lawyer on the case or that he would delegate all the work to the death penalty qualified co-counsel anyway. Or he thought that he would be successful in his efforts to have the death penalty removed. It was a gamble either way.
He failed in both situations. he was unable to get the death penalty removed and unable to get his choice of co-counsel death penalty qualified. He burned through billable hours and travel expenses attending much of LVD’s trial that no doubt consumed much of the remaining funds he had been paid by CD. And now, just before the trial begins, he wants to walk away from the case without paying his gambling debt.
Perhaps the solution is for CD to sue JP for malpractice. CD could use the proceeds to engage his own death, penalty, qualified attorneys As he would no longer be indigent. It would not avoid the delay in the trial, but nothing can do that now and at least it would save the ID taxpayers, the burden of the cost of these attorneys.