UPDATE: PHOENIX -- A Phoenix judge has refused to fire the lawyer of the mother of an Arizona baby missing for nearly three months.
Elizabeth Johnson had asked the judge to fire attorney Vanessa Smith, saying in a motion handwritten on notebook paper that Smith "does not file motions I request and pressures me to do what she wants."
Judge Timothy Ryan denied Johnson's request at a hearing Wednesday.
The 23-year-old Johnson's lip quivered when Ryan mentioned her son Gabriel, who was 8 months old when he was last seen in late December in San Antonio.
Johnson won't say where he is. She told the boy's father she killed him and put his body in a trash bin, while she told police she gave him to a San Antonio couple.
ORIGINAL: PHOENIX -- The mother of an Arizona baby who's been missing for nearly three months is expected to be in court Wednesday.
Elizabeth Johnson had refused to leave her cell for a court hearing last week, but Judge Timothy Ryan ordered deputies to "use any means necessary" to get her to Wednesday's hearing.
Johnson, 23, is being held in Maricopa County jail in connection with her son Gabriel's disappearance.
Gabriel was 8 months old when he was last seen in late December in San Antonio, and police don't know whether he's alive.
Police say Johnson drove the boy to San Antonio from Tempe, stayed about a week, then took a bus to Florida without him. She was arrested Dec. 30 in Florida and is charged in Arizona with kidnapping, child abuse and custodial interference.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
