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Hoffman said, “Fired you? Okay, step back”
Then, to the jurors, he said, “I’ht”
The court officers, guns on their hips, grouped behind the defendant The judge opened the door behind the bench, and prosecution and defense counsel followed him down the corridor and assembled in his book-lined office Parisi and Yuki took the brick-red love seat, and Elise Antonelli sat in the chair across from Hoffman’s desk
Hoffive as a reason?”
Antonelli said, “Paraphrasing now, he said, ‘I’ood, Elise, but I’m the best person to take my case to the jury’”
“Really?” the judge said “While facing twenty-five counts ofto arrive at this staggeringly stupid decision?”
“He never e, until I brought hiot some jailhouse advice, or ets a ot incompetent counsel”
“Is he delusional?” Parisi asked
Hoffman said, “Elise, don’t answer that Well, let otiate a deal with the defendant?”
“Judge, I’e for twenty-five life sentences served concurrently rather than consecutively with no possibility of parole I offered this previously and was turned down”
Elise Antonelli leaned forward in her seat She said, “Judge, he won’t take a deal He wants a trial and he believes that he can win He plans to walk free That’s what he said That, and that he has a constitutional right for a pro se defense”
Yuki recalled only three mass uilty and had been executed Colin Ferguson, also found guilty, was given six life sentences Only Lee Anthony Evans had defended hies Connor Grant’s odds of winning were better if Antonnelli defended him, and that would be better for the prosecution as well Yuki knew that a pro se defendant was a prosecutor’s worst nightmare Juries tended to feel sorry for theot aith mistakes, misstatements, and meritless objections Whether these missteps were calculated or not, they could influence the jury in the defendant’s favor
Hoffman said to Antonelli, “Oh, boy I’ll talk with hie his mind”
CHAPTER 31
YUKI AND LEN went upstairs to Len’s office and tried to figure out what Connor Grant was trying to pull Whatever it was, Judge Hoffht?