Judge, weary of rants, ejects murder defendant

A ranting and raving murder suspect who has insisted on representing himself at his trial was twice ejected from the courtroom Thursday and might not be allowed back when proceedings resume today.

“I’m trying to prove my innocence,” Parnell Robert May shouted as bailiffs removed him a second time. “I have the right to confront my accusers!”

Despite repeated warnings from Circuit Judge Leon Johnson over the past two days, the 41-year-old North Little Rock man continued to interrupt witnesses, talk out of turn and defy the judge.

Prosecutors had also repeatedly objected to the way May kept trying to ask the same questions, perhaps only changing his phrasing slightly.

“He is being disruptive. He will not let us proceed,” Johnson said. “He keeps talking. He will not let anyone else speak. He keeps asking the same questions over and over and over. I will not let him disrupt this court.”

The judge said May had persisted with his unruly behavior despite the significant effort that has been made to accommodate May’s eccentric legal presentation and the fifth-grade dropout’s admitted lack of knowledge about court procedure and evidence.

A five-time felon with a history of violence, May is charged with first-degree murder in the December 2016 death of his girlfriend, Ann Marie Mireles.

The partially nude body of the 41-year-old woman was found in the rain on the front steps of the couple’s Vaughn Road home by a neighbor. They had lived there only three days.

Prosecutors Barbara Mariani and Marianne Satterfield told jurors that sheriff’s deputies have assembled “overwhelming” proof — DNA, cell phone photographs, blood evidence and witness testimony — that May is Mireles’ killer.

Deputies who arrested May found him hiding under the couple’s bed with Mireles’ blood spattered on his clothes and boots.

According to medical testimony, Mireles was beaten over an extended period. She had so many injuries — broken ribs, bruises, cuts and scrapes from head to toe — that doctors could not count them all.

Further, her body showed distinctive welt-like bruises that can only have been inflicted by something long and cylindrical, the testimony said. Police seized a walking cane from the house, along with a metal pipe that has Mireles’ blood on one end and DNA from May on the other.

May’s cellphone also held four photographs of the badly injured, but still alive, Mireles taken less than eight hours before her body was found, according to testimony.

She was punched so hard in the face that her teeth were driven through her lips. She suffered a blow so severe her liver was ripped in two, an injury that’s more commonly inflicted by car crashes than by homicides, the medical testimony said.

But May maintains that Mireles was not murdered or even beaten as prosecutors say.

May told jurors Mireles was killed by the medical personnel who tried to revive her, saying their rough handling inflicted the lethal liver injury and that they also poisoned her with the equivalent of rubbing alcohol.

“If I did do it, I’d admit it,” May said in his opening statements. “I don’t want a guilty conscience. This is not a homicide or a suicide.”

He told jurors he’s being railroaded by authorities who are trying to cover up how Mireles actually died.

Jurors have seen May’s mood shift from amiable to antagonistic as witnesses repeatedly failed to tell him what he wanted to hear.

May reached the end of the judge’s patience while the defendant questioned sheriff’s detective Jeff Allison. Some of May’s first questions seemed borderline nonsensical, such as when May asked the deputy how many cats were found in the couple’s home and what had happened to them.

“I didn’t count them,” Allison responded. “As far as I know, they stayed in the house. I don’t know where they went.”

The judge moved to cut off May’s cross-examination of the investigator after more than an hour as May continued to ask the same questions over and over. May had begun to harangue Allison, claiming the deputy was lying, when the judge ordered him to stop.

The judge sent jurors out of the courtroom as May continued talking despite repeated orders to be quiet. As jurors filed out, the judge had to shout to be heard over May’s diatribe as the defendant continued to disparage the deputy, the judge and the legal system, complaining that his rights were being violated.

May briefly quieted down once the jurors left but picked back up when the judge warned him he faced being removed from the courtroom.

The judge had bailiffs remove May after enduring about 10 minutes of the man’s disjointed ramblings. But the judge allowed him to return about 10 minutes later after giving May time to consult with public defenders Lew Marczuk, Harrison Tome and David Sudduth.

May came in quietly, but that lasted only about two minutes before he began interrupting the judge, who was speaking to the lawyers. This time, bailiff Lynn Berry had to physically pull May from the room.

The law requires the judge to give May another opportunity to return to court when proceedings resume at 9:30 a.m. today, but only if May absolutely promises to behave.

“One peep and he’s out,” the judge said.

The judge can also bar May from continuing to represent himself, and he turned the case over to the public defenders, who will represent May before the jury whether he is in the courtroom or not.

Marczuk told the judge that he understands May’s defense strategy, but that his primary focus must be to try to keep the man from being sentenced to life in prison. Marczuk said he will be trying to persuade jurors to convict May on a lesser homicide charge, either second-degree murder or manslaughter.

May had initially accepted a public defender, but the relationship soured after a few months, and May demanded to represent himself.

May, deemed competent by state doctors, passed the few legal tests required to act as his own lawyer. His constitutional right to an attorney similarly allows him to proceed alone.

When the trial began Wednesday, the judge asked May five times whether he wanted a lawyer; each time, May was unequivocal in his refusal.

“No, no, no, no, no, no,” he said the first time the judge asked, drawing out the words to make his point.

May told the judge he’d just figure things out for himself by watching what Satterfield was doing.

“I’ll watch her and see how she gets it in,” he said. “I’m very perceptive. I’m very intelligent.”