SEBRING — Highlands County court officials will appoint a private attorney for the Georgia suspect accused of fleeing after law enforcement officers said he witnessed the shooting death of a Florida Highway Patrol officer.

Assistant State Attorney Steve Houchin said Monday the Highlands County Public Defender’s Office has withdrawn itself from representing Quintin Jerome Kinder, 21. Houchin said the court will appoint a local private attorney for Kinder.

Houchin said the public defender’s office is already representing 19-year-old Joshua Lee Altersberger, the Sebring resident accused of killing FHP Sgt. Nicholas Sottile earlier this month.

“There’s an obvious conflict of interest,” Houchin said, adding one suspect may give public defenders information that could incriminate the other.

Kinder may also be facing a violation of probation charge from his native state, Houchin said.

But Houchin said he had no further details on that possible charge.

According to records from the Decatur County Jail in Georgia, 21-year-old Kinder was arrested or charged for the following between 2003-05: Burglary, theft, obstruction of justice, driving on a suspended license, possession of marijuana, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, criminal trespass and violation of probation.

Altersberger and Kinder were arrested earlier this month after FHP reports said Sottile pulled over a vehicle the two were using near Lake Placid for a traffic violation.

The FHP said Altersberger shot Sottile in the chest and fled in his vehicle, prompting Kinder to flee into a nearby orange grove.
The two were later separately caught by law enforcement. Altersberger is charged with first-degree murder.

Kinder is charged with trespassing in a cultivated grove, a misdemeanor.

A judge last week ordered both men held in jail without bond.