Double homicide retrial brings same result: Guilty
Tatum had no better luck as own attorney
Bruce Vielmetti
In the end, acting as his own lawyer in a double homicide trial didn’t turn out much better for Robert Tatum than the first time he was prosecuted for the crimes — and had a licensed attorney.
A second jury found Tatum, 37, guilty Tuesday of killing his former roommates in 2010.
Kyle Ippoliti, 21, and Ruhim Abdella, 30, were fatally shot at a house Ippoliti owned on North Richards Street. Tatum had been a tenant until he was kicked out for not paying his rent. He returned to the house and shot both men, the state charged.
Before his first trial in 2011, Tatum said he wanted to represent himself. He knew the particulars of his charge and potential sentence and showed pretty good familiarity with the jury selection and trial processes. But Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Dennis Cimpl found that Tatum hadn’t proved he understood “the difficulties and disadvantages” of not having a lawyer and denied his request to represent himself.
After his 2011 convictions, Tatum spent years appealing, and losing, until the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in January 2017 finally saw things his way.
It found that while the Sixth Amendment guarantees criminal defendants the assistance of counsel, “the (U.S.) Supreme Court has recognized for more than 40 years that this does not mean that counsel can be shoved down an unwilling defendant’s throat.”
Tatum was ordered freed or given a new trial, at which he must be given the option of acting as his own attorney.
His new trial began a week ago Monday. Patrick Earle was assigned by Circuit Judge Mark Sanders as Tatum’s standby counsel. Earlier, Tatum had argued pretrial motions with lots of citations to case law.
The jury began deliberations Monday before returning its verdict shortly after 4 p.m. Tuesday.
After the jury was excused, Tatum said he thought the verdict shouldn’t be entered and is incorrect. “To be honest, I really can’t believe the verdict.”
He said the jury must have relied on emotions, not evidence. He said there was government misconduct, like playing extra bits of audio of his interview when the jury asked to hear it during deliberations, beyond what was played during trial, and renewed his contention that the government fabricated evidence and altered transcripts of his original trial.
Sanders told Tatum he could raise his other issues in post-trial motions. Tatum faces mandatory sentences of life in prison.