Planned Parenthood shooter asks to represent himself

Robert Lewis Dear, 57, accused of shooting three people to death and wounding nine others at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado last month, attends his hearing to face 179 counts of various criminal charges at an El Paso County court in Colorado Springs, Colorado…

“I invoke my constitutional right to defend myself”, Dear said in a court appearance Wednesday, according to The Associated Press.

After Judge Gilbert Martinez advised Dear to trust his lawyer, Dear replied, “How can I trust my attorney when he says I’m incompetent in the newspaper?”

King, the chief trial deputy for the Colorado State Public Defender’s Office, previously represented the convicted Aurora theater shooter, who was spared the death penalty after a jury was unable to come to a unanimous decision.

“But I do not want them as my lawyers”.

Dear, looking unkempt and wearing blue jail scrubs, repeatedly interrupted Wednesday’s hearing, held to discuss a range of issues related to the November 27 shooting at the Colorado Springs clinic. “Do I sound like I have no intelligence?”

By the end of the session, the judge ordered a competency evaluation for Dear.

A backlog of orders for such evaluations made it unclear when the exam could be completed.

The judge proceeded to recite legal requirements for competency evaluations in such proceedings, as Dear went on to periodically interject.

“The number that were thrown around in the courtroom there were sixty to 90 days on up to six months and it’s really up to the state hospital”, said May.

Dear’s family and acquaintances describe him as a man with a violent temper, anti-government sentiments and longstanding disgust at those who provide abortion services.

“The judge is asking to confirm that the defendant knows what’s going on in the court room, understand the proceedings, understands the charges, and is able to cooperate with his attorney’s”, said District Attorney Dan May.

Robert Dear in court on December 9, 2015. He spent most of his life in North and SC before recently moving to an isolated community in Colorado’s mountains, where he lived in a trailer with no electricity.

Following the attack, he also told authorities “no more baby parts”, after being apprehended, a law-enforcement official said.

When the judge set the next hearing, a status conference, for February 24, 2016, Rachel Swasey nodded to indicate she would be there.