Opening statement halted in trial over Jewish site deaths

Cross, also known as Glenn Miller, is representing himself in the state trial in Olathe, Kansas, which is expected to last three to four weeks. All of the victims were Christians.

Opening statements are scheduled for Monday.

Cross, who also goes by the surname Miller, faces a single capital murder charge in the April 13, 2014, deaths of William Corporon, Reat Underwood and Terri LaManno. The panel of nine men and eight women will be randomly narrowed to 12 jurors and five alternates after closing arguments. He says he was morally obligated to kill Jews. He ran for the U.S. House in 2006 and the U.S. Senate in 2010 in Missouri, each time espousing a white-power platform.

Miller is acting as his own lawyer, three attorneys are on standby. This is the first death penalty case to be tried in Kansas since 2002.

“If I can’t explain why I did it then I have no chance of being found not guilty”, Cross told Johnson County District Court Judge Thomas Kelly Ryan after Ryan halted Cross’ opening statement and ordered jurors to leave the courtroom.

But Cross couldn’t tell the jury that, Ryan ruled.

The 17-member jury was finalized last week. Concerned about how he might behave during the trial, prosecutors this week filed a memorandum of law addressing the court’s right to remove a disruptive defendant and deny Cross the right to defend himself.

“I had good moral reasons for what I did”, Cross told the judge.