An additional attorney qualified to work on death penalty cases will join the two attorneys defending Anthony B. Mertz next week, lead defense attorney Paula Phillips said in court Thursday.

David Williams, of Fairfield, will serve as the third defense attorney in the capital murder case. Mertz, a 26-year-old former Eastern student, has been charged with the June 12 murder of Eastern student Shannon McNamara.

Williams was hired to the case to assist Phillips and public defender Lonnie Lutz with the workload. The attorney, who has worked on capital murder cases in Wayne County, is certified by the Capital Litigation Trial Bar, a special section of the state Supreme Court that certifies attorneys to be qualified to work on death penalty cases.

“He is a very competent attorney,” Circuit Court Judge Dale Cini said Thursday in a pretrial hearing.

The team of Phillips, Lutz and now Williams matches the three attorneys assigned for prosecution of the case.

In order to hire Williams, funding is derived from the Illinois Capital Litigation Trust Fund, which is a program designed to assist trial lawyers in capital punishment cases. Phillips was also hired through the trust fund in order to serve on the defense last October.

Also at Thursday’s hearing, Cini said Williams must be present at the next pretrial hearing Tuesday that will set a plan for the prosecution to transfer evidence to the defense to physically examine and run DNA tests on items from Mertz’ apartment, fingerprints and other physical evidence.

Previously, the defense was denied access to the evidence because there was not enough time for it to be examined by the deadline of two days prior to the start of the trial. However, because the trial date has been pushed to Sept. 30, Cini set Tuesday’s date to discuss a plan for the evidence.

“I’m going to hear it Tuesday,” Cini said. “I’m determined to keep this case moving.”