SEABROOK - Raymond Fowler, 33, is expected to be assigned a public defender at an appearance in Rockingham County Superior Court on Wednesday.

The felony case of witness tampering against Fowler, one of four Seabrook teens convicted in the Pamela Smart murder case, continues with a 9 a.m. structuring conference.

The court is expected to appoint a lawyer for Fowler, who was unable to keep Jorel Booker of Raymond as his attorney because he could no longer afford to pay him.

Booker argued last month for dismissal of the witness-tampering charge. The court was to have heard the arguments on Wednesday, said Booker, had he still been Fowler's attorney.

Fowler, who was released from prison in April 2003, was ordered back to prison in June on an alleged parole violation. Fowler and his older brother William were charged by summons with disturbing the peace on June 8 in Salisbury, Mass. Seabrook police later charged Raymond Fowler with witness tampering for allegedly trying to get one of the witnesses to the June 8 incident to recant her statements.

Both brothers were scheduled to appear on Oct. 6 in Newburyport District Court to answer the disturbing the peace charges, according to William Fowler, who did appear. The charge against him was dropped, he said and Booker confirmed.

Booker made no attempt to have Raymond Fowler transported to Newburyport, said Fowler's mother, Paula Fowler.

Even if Raymond Fowler had appeared in court and the violation against him had been dropped, said Booker, the witness tampering charge would stand.

"It doesn't mean anything in Raymond's case," Booker said. "The statute turns thoughts and words into a crime."