SANDPOINT — Capital offense-qualified defense counsel has been appointed to represent a Washington state man facing the death penalty for killing a cab driver in Bonner County.

Chief Public Defender Janet Whitney moved for the appointment of special counsel in Jacob Corban Coleman’s case because none of the attorneys employed by her office are capital-qualified defense counsels, court records show. Judge Barbara Buchanan appointed R. Keith Roark, a Twin Falls attorney who has been practicing law for more than 40 years.

Roark served as an appointed and elected prosecuting attorney in Blaine County before founding his law firm in 1985, according to a brief biographical description posted to his company’s website. Roark, former president of the Idaho Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, is the only Idaho lawyer to have won a death penalty conviction as a prosecutor and a death penalty acquittal as a defense attorney, the post said.

Coleman, 20, of Puyallup, is accused of stabbing Gagandeep Singh to death with a hunting knife on Aug. 28, 2017. Coleman hailed a ride in Singh’s minivan taxicab at Spokane Airport ostensibly to take him to visit a friend in Hope, although he later told sheriff’s investigators he selected the destination because it was a sparsely populated area.

Coleman, according to testimony in the case, purchased the knife that was used to kill Singh at the Ponderay Walmart. Singh drove to Clark Fork before doubling back on Highway 200 to Kootenai, where the stabbing took place. Coleman told investigators he was initially suicidal during the drive, but those thoughts later shifted to homicide.

Coleman confessed to repeatedly stabbing Singh, 22, inside the minivan and then talking with him for an extended period of time as Singh bled out, court documents indicate. However, Coleman neither rendered or summoned aid as Singh slowly succumbed to his injuries.

A preliminary autopsy report indicated that Singh had been stabbed as many as 27 times.

Coleman pleaded not guilty to a charge of first-degree murder after he was bound over to stand trial in 1st District Court. A six-week trial is planned for April 2019, according to court documents.

The viciousness and callousness of the attack prompted Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall to file notice of intent to seek the death penalty. It’s the first time the county prosecuted a capital case since the 1996 slaying of Jeremy Scott in the Selkirk Mountains.

Faron Earl Lovelace was ordered by a judge to pay the ultimate price for Scott’s slaying, although the death sentence was later vacated to comport with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling which held that juries must decide whether a defendant should be put to death. Lovelace was ultimately re-sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.