Bad Ideas: Asking Questions You Don't Know the Answer To; Self-Representation

In the Bad Lawyer's continuing quest to warn you against Bad Ideas, we have this story from Tracey Kaplan at the San Jose Mercury News:

"A seemingly minor witness who took the stand in a rare Santa Clara County death penalty trial dropped a bombshell Monday, linking the accused killer for the first time to the East San Jose carport where the young victim's bullet-scarred body was dumped.  Ines Sailor's (pic) partially clad, shoeless body was found on New Year's Day in 1981 in the carport of an East San Jose apartment complex, the day after the 23-year-old woman disappeared from a party in San Francisco.   Suspected killer Melvin Forte, now 60, lived in San Francisco at the time, though he worked at Langendorf Bakery in San Jose a decade earlier and 'knew the streets,' prosecutor Brian Welch contended.

In his opening statement Monday morning, Forte, who is acting as his own lawyer, took pains to draw the jury's attention to the vague link between him and the city of San Jose, saying, 'Working and homicide is two different things.'

But Monday afternoon that argument lost steam, as Forte began cross-examining San Jose housekeeper and artist Barbara Kelch. She was the assistant manager of the 142-unit apartment complex on Poco Way who discovered Sailor's body.

Forte is currently serving life in prison on a murder conviction out of San Francisco. He became a suspect in Sailor's death after a positive DNA hit in 2005. If he is convicted, he could face the death penalty, in a rare capital case brought by the district attorney's office.

Forte barely finished asking  Kelch to recall the configuration of the apartment complex -- which she said included about six buildings spread over two square blocks -- when his question seemed to trigger her memory.

'I remember seeing you,' Kelch blurted, staring at his face.

'When did you see me?' Forte asked in a skeptical tone. 

'Frequently,' Kelch said, adding 'in the afternoon, sometimes midday, sometimes early evening.'

Kelch acknowledged she had not identified him before during any police interviews or the preliminary hearing. No tenant records are available because the former apartment complex has been redeveloped.  'I didn't recall you until I saw you today,' Kelch said. 'I'm an artist '... details are important to me.'

Adding insult to injury, Kelch didn't just claim she knew Forte.   She also said she asked him once if he lived there.   'You said, 'yes,' it was your apartment,' Kelch said.

She also testified that she suspected him of  'suspicious activity' because he was much older than the people she saw him with and because his apartment had a steady stream of visitors.  'I did not get a good feeling, she said, as the jury of eight men and four women listened closely."
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Never, never repesent yourself. 

Never ask a question you don't know the answer to--so many times, I have seen this occur with precisely the same result Kelch had in this instance.  I did it.  I've seen it done repeatedly by persons veteran enough to know better.  Stupid, stupid, stupid.

What I like about this new account his how the defendant dug deeper and deeper into this hole.  The granular detail supplied by this witness probably will help put Kelch on California's death row.

Bungling Self-Representation

The New York Times reports on Robert Camarano, a criminal defendant who ill-advisedly chosen to self-represent.  As I have said repeatedly at Bad Lawyer, this is a bad strategy, but check out what the Justice Carol Berkman had to say:
“You don’t know how to ask a question,” Justice Berkman told him in State Supreme Court. “You don’t know how to offer things into evidence. You keep making stupid speeches. You keep saying you are good at this. You are not. I do not say this to insult you.”
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John Eligon's article at the link is not to be missed.  

One more time, do not represent yourself in court when you are in legal peril, even if you are an attorney.  Get a helping hand or have a fool for a client and a fool for a lawyer--your choice.

Serial Killer Alcala Convicted

Alleged genuis, serial killer Rodney Acala who we reported on here on Bad Lawyer in January was convicted, today, of multiple murders by a Santa Ana jury following a trial at which Alcala represented himself.  

As you will recall the major focus of the trial was the disappearance and murder of pre-teen, Robin Samsoe whose gold ball earrings turned up in Alcala's possession.  Once again we have the fool for a lawyer and fool for a client--Alcala who was previously on California's deathrow is in all likelihood headed back.  Await his appeal for "ineffective assistance" of counsel.

Too Stoopid Client, Too Stoopid Lawyer

This is courtesy of the Crime Scene KC Blog another account of self-representation gone awry.  Clifton D. Taylor robbed a Kansas City Bank, stuffing the proceeds into his leather coat and hoofing it down the street.  Let's let Mark Morris of the Kansas City Star fill in the details:

"Armed with nothing but a threatening note, Taylor on March 12 stole $2,700 from the bank at 2301 Independence Ave. Just after noon, he bolted from the bank and began cutting through parking lots. Two bank employees — a customer service representative and an administrative assistant who had just returned from lunch — began following him in a car about a half-block back.

Taylor dumped his black leather jacket and green knit cap in the bed of a pickup he passed along the way. The bank employees lost sight of him after he cut back north toward Independence Avenue and headed east.

Figuring that he had gone into one of the small shops at Independence and Prospect avenues, the employees parked, waited for police and watched the stores.Taylor, meanwhile, had ducked into a cell phone shop and began looking at telephones. Security cameras inside the shop captured what followed. After feeling his pockets and turning one inside out, Taylor realized that the $2,700 from the bank was in the pocket of the coat that he had dumped about two blocks away. Slowly, Taylor put his hands on his head and bent forward, apparently in agony, then bowed his head on the top of a glass display case.

He walked onto the street, where the bank employees pointed him out to police."

Of course, this idiot decides his best representation is self-representation.  We'll let reporter Morris tell us how that went:

"Crime lab technicians found Taylor’s DNA on the knit cap and leather coat, from which police recovered the bank’s money. Investigators also used bank surveillance photos to match the distinctive fade pattern of Taylor’s blue jeans and his designer boots to those the robber wore. The robber’s face was not clear in the pictures.  Taylor argued his innocence at trial, contending that police had manufactured the case.

Hoping to prove that his former defense lawyer was somehow working for the prosecutors, he presented the jury a letter describing the defense’s attempt to poke holes in the Kansas City Police Department crime lab’s DNA procedures. But an independent lab had found the procedures and test results sound, jurors learned.  Addressing jurors in his closing argument, he acknowledged being convicted of a drug offense 18 years ago. Taylor said he did not rob the bank but merely was shopping for a cell phone when arrested without cause.  'I believe all the evidence was tampered and all the witnesses were coached,' Taylor said."

Um, the jury convicted.