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Speaker 1: Crime Alert. I'm John Lemley. A Florida man charged with

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Speaker 1: trying to assassinate Donald Trump now wants to act as

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Speaker 1: his own lawyer. In federal court. Fifty nine year old

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Speaker 1: Ryan Routh told US District Judge Aileen Cannon he wishes

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Speaker 1: to dismiss his court appointed attorneys and represent himself. Judge

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Speaker 1: Cannon asked if he'd prefer new council. Ralph replied no,

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Speaker 1: I will represent myself. The judge then closed the court

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Speaker 1: room for about an hour to discuss attorney client matters

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Speaker 1: in private. Prosecutors allege Routh planned the attack for weeks

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Speaker 1: before aiming a rifle through shrubbery. As Tromp played golf

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Speaker 1: on September fifteenth, twenty twenty four, at his country club

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Speaker 1: in West Palm Beach, Florida. A Secret Service agent spotted

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Speaker 1: Ralph before Trump came into view. When Rauth allegedly aimed

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Speaker 1: his weapon at the agent, the agent fired first, causing

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Speaker 1: Ruth to drop his rifle and flee without firing a shot.

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Speaker 1: Law enforcement later located Routh with help from a witness

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Speaker 1: who had seen someone running from the scene. Prosecutors say

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Speaker 1: the witness was flown by police helicopter to a nearby interstate,

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Speaker 1: where Routh was arrested and identified. Routh has pleaded not

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Speaker 1: guilty to several federal charges, including attempting to assassinate a

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Speaker 1: major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer, and possessing a

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Speaker 1: firearm with an obliterated serial number. He also faces state

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Speaker 1: charges of attempted murder and terrorism. The U. S. Supreme

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Speaker 1: Court has ruled defendants have the right to represent themselves

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Speaker 1: if they can show a judge they're competent to waive

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Speaker 1: legal counsel. Ralth's federal trial is set for September. If convicted,

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Speaker 1: he could face up to life in prison.

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Speaker 2: Thanks John for the latest crime and justice needs. Go

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Speaker 2: to crime online dot com and please join us for

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Speaker 2: our daily podcast, crime Stories, more crime and justice news

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Speaker 2: after this Now with the latest crime and justice breaking

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Speaker 2: news Crime Online John Limley.

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Speaker 1: Maine County police are investigating the death of a local

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Speaker 1: paddle boarder as a homicide. The body of forty eight

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Speaker 1: year old Sunshine Steward of Tenants Harbor, was found July

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Speaker 1: third on Crawford Pond in Union. Officials have ruled her

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Speaker 1: death a homicide, but aren't revealing the cause. Police are

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Speaker 1: asking anyone who saw Stuart paddleboarding July second, between six

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Speaker 1: and nine pm near one hundred Acre Island to come forward.

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Speaker 1: The pond, about eighty miles northeast of Portland, is popular

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Speaker 1: with campers and voters. Loved ones calling her Sonny have

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Speaker 1: launched a gofund me page, which has raised over nineteen

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Speaker 1: thousand dollars. Police say they understand the community's fear and

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Speaker 1: urge residents to stay alert as the search for her

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Speaker 1: killer continues. Two former West Virginia Corrections officers had been

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Speaker 1: sentenced to decades behind bars for their roles in the

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Speaker 1: beating death of an inmate at the Southern Regional Jail

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Speaker 1: in Beaver. Forty one year old Mark Holdron received a

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Speaker 1: twenty year prison term, while thirty three year old Jonathan

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Speaker 1: Walters was sentenced to twenty one years. Prosecutors say in

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Speaker 1: March of twenty twenty two, Holdren and Walters handcuffed and

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Speaker 1: restrained thirty seven year old pre trial detainee Quantes Burkes

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Speaker 1: in an interview room with no cameras, where they repeatedly struck, kicked,

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Speaker 1: and pepper sprayed him after Burks became unresponsive. Walters swung

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Speaker 1: his head into a metal door before officers dropped him

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Speaker 1: on a concrete floor. Burks died soon after the US

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Speaker 1: Justice Departments as Holdron and Walters admitted knowing officers used

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Speaker 1: camera blind spots to assault inmates. They're among six officers indicted.

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Speaker 1: Former supervisor Chad Lester was sentenced in May to over

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Speaker 1: seventeen years for helping cover up the attack. Two other

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Speaker 1: officers had already pleaded guilty to conspiracy. Initially, the state

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Speaker 1: medical examiner ruled Burke's death natural, but a private autopsy

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Speaker 1: ordered by his family revealed multiple blunt force injuries. A

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Speaker 1: Utah judge has set an execution date for a death

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Speaker 1: row inmate with dementia nearly four decades after the crime.

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Speaker 1: Sixty seven year old Ralph Leroy Menzies is scheduled to

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Speaker 1: die by firing squad September fifth for the nineteen eighty

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Speaker 1: six abduction and murder of Maureen Hunsicker, a twenty six

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Speaker 1: year old mother of three. Judge Matthew Bates signed the

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Speaker 1: death warrant July ninth, ruling that despite recent cognitive decline,

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Speaker 1: Menzies consistently and rationally understands why he is being executed.

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Speaker 1: Menzie's attorneys argue his dementia has worsened, leaving him wheelchair bound,

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Speaker 1: dependent on O oxygen and unable to comprehend his legal case.

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Speaker 1: A hearing on his competency is set for July twenty third. Menzies,

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Speaker 1: convicted in nineteen eighty eight, chose firing squad decades ago,

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Speaker 1: an option for Utah inmates sentenced before two thousand and four.

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Speaker 1: If carried out, it would make him only the sixth

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Speaker 1: prisoner in the US executed this way since nineteen seventy seven.

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Speaker 1: The Utah Attorney General's Office expressed confidence in the ruling.

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Speaker 1: Hunsicker was kidnapped from a convenience store in Kerns, near

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Speaker 1: Salt Lake City, and later found strangled with her throat

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Speaker 1: cut in Big Cottonwood Canyon.

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Speaker 2: Thanks John for the latest crime in justice news. Go

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Speaker 2: to crime online dot com and please join us for

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Speaker 2: our daily podcast, Crime Stories, where we do our best

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Speaker 2: to find missing people, especially children, and solve Unsalt homicides.

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Speaker 2: With this crime alert, I'm Nancy Grace.