Dec. 26—WILKES-BARRE — The lawyer carousel in representing homicide suspect Natanihil Sanmartin seems to have come to an end.

Luzerne County Judge David W. Lupas last week reappointed the Luzerne County Public Defender’s Office to represent Sanmartin, 41, when he failed to retain a private attorney to defend him.

Wilkes-Barre police detectives charged Sanmartin with fatally shooting his girlfriend, Carla Pina, inside their shared residence at 42 Darling St., on Feb. 12.

Court records say Sanmartin went into a bedroom where a 3-year-old child was sleeping and fired a shot from a 9mm semi-automatic handgun.

Pina went into the bedroom and was shot in the face killing her, court records say.

Sanmartin is facing charges of criminal homicide, child endangerment and two counts of reckless endangerment.

Soon after Sanmartin was charged on Feb. 12, he submitted an application to the Public Defender’s Office for representation.

On the day of Sanmartin’s preliminary hearing in April, Sanmartin had retained a private attorney to represent him on the criminal homicide case.

After the preliminary hearing, the private attorney left Sanmartin and he applied again for representation from the Public Defender’s Office.

However, Lupas in November granted a request by the Public Defender’s Office to end their representation of Sanmartin as Sanmartin reportedly failed to disclose rental property he owned in West Pittston. Rental income would make Sanmartin ineligible to be provided a public defender.

During a status conference held Nov. 21, Lupas scolded Sanmartin for a lack of effort at retaining a private defense lawyer and gave him a month to hire an attorney.

When Sanmartin failed to privately retain an attorney, Lupas during a status conference Friday reappointed the Public Defender’s Office to represent him.

Due to the change of lawyers and the reappointment, Lupas continued Sanmartin’s Jan. 29 trial indefinitely.