Defense attorneys for Marcus Lamont Crocker, who is charged with capital murder, say their client's constitutional rights are being violated in the Salt Lake County Jail because of poor nutrition, no available eyeglasses and "interference" with key visitors, including his own defense team.

Crocker's lawyers filed a motion Wednesday seeking an order from 3rd District Judge Deno Himonas to move Crocker to a different detention center.

Defense attorneys stated that Crocker has lost a "dangerous amount of body weight" due to inadequate nutrition at the jail, compromising his ability to concentrate, and they contend that the lack of eyeglasses has "exacerbated" unnamed mental-health problems.

Chief deputy Rollin Cook, who oversees the county's corrections division, disputed the claims about the jail.

"We feel like we've met all his constitutional needs from a nutritional point of view, a medical point of view, a mental health point of view — and all other incarcerated needs, including visiting," Cook said.

Regarding the visitors, Cook said, "there have been people who have not been allowed to visit this particular prisoner because of their threat to the security of the facility, but we have provided everything we can for this maximum security prisoner."

"If the court would like to review any processes or anything we have done, we would be happy to accommodate that," Cook added.

Crocker, 27, is charged with the fatal shooting of Kang Ho Lee, 24, a University of Utah linguistics student who was working as a cashier at Sunshine Market in Salt Lake on Sept. 6, 2001. If convicted, Crocker could face the death penalty.

Defense attorneys Scott Williams and Gilbert Athay maintain that Crocker needs a physical check-up to see if he has any health problems due to improper nourishment.

They also contend that the jail has repeatedly interfered with defense-team visits to Crocker, as well as visits involving important expert witnesses who would figure significantly in building Crocker's defense.

"In fact, this court recently acknowledged that the circumstances may be treading on Mr. Crocker's due process and the requirements of the Sixth Amendment," the motion states.

Crocker needs glasses, but a planned eye exam was "recently aborted," and the jail has said it will not "facilitate the task," the motion said. Crocker's lawyers say that without glasses, their client cannot properly participate in his defense, and this has harmed his psychological testing and has "exacerbated his mental-health issues."

Williams and Athay also would like Crocker to be housed in a detention facility where laptop computers can be used to review visual and audio recordings.

Salt Lake County deputy district attorneys Vincent Meister and Angela Micklos are scheduled to respond to these claims and other motions, as well as put forth their own, during five motion hearings scheduled by Himonas. Three will be day-long hearings.

A 10-day jury trial has been scheduled to begin Nov. 26.

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E-mail: lindat@desnews.com