Court shares jailhouse videos of Charleston church gunman

A week before the sentencing phase of his trial, Dylann Roof got a visit in jail from his mother, who pleaded with him to reconsider his decision to act as his own lawyer in the fatal shootings of nine black worshipers at a South Caro- lina church.

But Roof was more concerned with the clothes he was to wear to court. Since he could not have his first choice of his comfortable jail jump- suit, he wanted two-tone gray pants, inseam 29, not 30, so they wouldn’t hang over his shoes. He also wanted thicker sweaters. And he wanted his lawyers at the defense table for one reason.

“So I can abuse them,” Roof said with an awkward laugh in one of four jailhouse videos released Tuesday by federal court officials.

In the nearly three hours of footage from family vis- its, Roof laughed at his dad’s jokes, tried to trick his mom into thinking he had tinsel and a stocking in his cell for Christmas and told his half-sister he would invite her to his execution. He also upbraided his mom for feeding his cats too many treats and told his dad not to believe all of Donald Trump’s promises now that he’s pres- ident.

He even cried, convinced he had syphilis despite exten- sive examinations by doctors.

Never once did Roof mention anything about the nine people he killed in the 2015 massacre at Emanuel AME church in Charleston, where he fired 77 shots in the fellowship hall after spending 45 minutes in a Bible study.

Roof was sentenced to death in January on federal hate-crime and obstruction-of-religion charges. He did not want the recordings made public and fired his lawyers to prevent them from presenting the videos to a jury as part of his defense.

The conversations took place at the Charleston County jail on a video conferencing system similar to a Skype call.

Roof could see his family and they could see him on small screens. They spoke into a phone receiver.

In the footage, Roof never mentioned any fear or anxiety about death row. Instead, he raved about the grits for breakfast and the chicken breast for dinner.

The tapes were presented by Roof ’s attorneys in a closed hearing as they unsuccessfully argued that he was not competent to stand trial.

The videos reinforced Roof ’s quirks — his abrupt changes in conversation topics, jokes made with no changes in tone or facial expression to indicate he is kidding and his insistence there is something physically wrong with him even when doctors have ruled it out.