...And Never Let HerGo

convict Anne Marie’s killer.

Chapter Forty-two
    T HINGS WERE NOT GOOD in the defense camp. As Tom’s dream team of attorneys prepared to begin their case, he notified them on Thursday, December 3, that he felt they were not responsive to his strategies. He had always opted for the “chain saw approach” to his defense—believing it was prudent to present
everything
that might possibly be of help to his case. Nothing would be too much, he felt, because you could never tell which witness or bit of information would swing the jury in his direction. His attorneys blanched at the idea.
    Tom was furious that Oteri, Maurer, O’Donnell, and Oberly seemed to be ignoring his advice, the questions he wanted them to ask and his game plan. He said he intended to fire them. They thought he might change his mind when he considered what it would mean to do that at this delicate point in his trial, but he was resolute. He gave them strict orders not to notify Judge Lee of his decision, but they felt they had to tell him what Tom was about to do. On Monday, December 7, Tom was prepared to make a motion to dismiss his legal staff and proceed
pro se
—to speak for himself.
    Judge Lee, Tom’s four attorneys, and Connolly and Wharton discussed the implications of having the defendant serve as his own attorney in what might turn out to be a death penalty case. A psychiatrist had examined Tom and found that his competency was not an issue.
    “He wants to get to that jury,” Judge Lee said. “I have nodoubt about that. He’s always felt he could create a bond with that jury.”
    O UT of the presence of the jury, but with Tom in the courtroom, Joe Oteri rose. “If Your Honor please, at this time we would move to be allowed to withdraw as counsel, collectively—myself, Mr. Maurer, Mr. O’Donnell, and Mr. Oberly. . . . We have a serious strategic difference with the defendant as to how the case is to be tried. . . . The defendant is committed to a course of conduct, as far as the presentation of evidence and the rest of it goes.”
    Tom rose to explain his decision to Judge Lee. “If I were a soldier in a foxhole and I had ten grenades available, I’d use all ten of them if I was surrounded by the enemy. . . . My counsel collectively believes that—in Joe’s words—he prefers to proceed with a ‘scalpel.’ His approach is that ‘less is more.’ I do not want to sit in jail three years from now for something I didn’t do and be saying to myself, If only they had known
this
or if only they had known
that.”
    Tom told Judge Lee that Jack, Gene, and Charlie were friends of over twenty years. And even though he had known Joe only since May, he was “almost like a father to him. But I’ve got to face myself and I owe it to my kids.”
    Letting his attorneys go was yet another thing that caused Tom to say, “It breaks my heart.”
    But finally he submitted a compromise, a “hybrid. . . . Let them present the defenses they think are needed . . . and allow me to present those
I
think are necessary.”
    Judge Lee asked Tom if he realized how his plan might sit with the jury and that it might “be consistent with the position the state is trying to present in this case.”
    Interestingly, Tom spoke of the state as one man—Colm Connolly. “I absolutely know how he’s going to try and twist it,” he said. “I’ll just have to deal with that as best I can. Everything has been twisted already.” Tom clearly hated Connolly.
    His own attorneys could not agree with his hybrid concept of defense. And Judge Lee reminded Tom that, were he hiring an attorney, he would not hire someone who had tried his last criminal case twenty-two years ago (which Tom had), and of the best-known adage in law: that a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client. Tom’s four lawyers feared for him; they knew he wanted to call witnesses who would surely do him damage: another woman in his life, for instance. And Tom was shocked to learn that, should heproceed alone, he would not be allowed to explain to the jury why he no longer had attorneys with him.
    In the end, Judge Lee gave Tom another day to decide if he really wanted to represent himself. And after almost twenty-four hours of discussion, he decided that he would stick with his original attorneys. Whether they would have chosen to represent him in the first place had they known what a minefield they were entering was a moot question. In the days ahead, they would often be