Trial suspended when home-invasion robbery suspect Weusi McGowen throws human feces at jury
DAILY NEWS STAFF
Tuesday, January 27th 2009, 10:43 AM
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2009/01/27/2009-01-27_trial_suspended_when_homeinvasion_robber.htmlA defendant on trial for a home-invasion robbery forced a mistrial when he pulled out a baggie of human feces and smeared some on his lawyer's face - before throwing a handful of at stunned jurors, San Diego's 10News.com reported.
The suspect, Weusi McGowen, launched into the bizarre meltdown after a San Diego Superior Court judge denied his request to remove a public defender, Jeffrey Martin, from the case, prosecutor Christopher Lawson told the TV news outlet.
"That juror didn't even see it coming," Lawson said.
Fortunately, the jurors escaped unscathed.
But manure turned out to be a successful legal maneuver, since Judge Jeffrey Fraser later declared a mistrial and ordered McGowan to get a new lawyer for the retrial, reported the American Bar Association Legal Journal. A status conference has been scheduled for Feb. 9.
The prosecutor told 10News.com that the defendant had previously wiped human feces on himself, but was pronounced mentally competent enough to stand trial by doctors.
McGowan is on trial for an Oct. 17, 2007 home invasion and is charged with kidnapping for robbery, theft and assault with a deadly weapon - a rock in a sock that was used to hit the victim. He likely will face assault charges for the feces incident as well.
