A Florida convict who came into court with the word “murderer” in his teeth nudged his lawyer during a court hearing Monday.
Walking into the courtroom for a sentencing hearing, 61-year-old Joseph Zieler waved over Kevin Shirley because he supposedly wanted to talk to him.
The assassin leaned in as if to say something, at which point his elbow smacked him across the face.
Zieler, who faces the death penalty for the murders of an 11-year-old girl and her caretaker three decades ago, was subdued by two bailiffs in court and taken from the place.
In statements to WINK-TV, the lawyer indicated that he was fine and that he had received worse blows in his days as a boxer.
“I had no idea that he was going to do something like that,” he declared. “Obviously, he was planning it. But as he was getting off, he said he was sorry he failed,” Shirley added.
A video of the incident released by the Fort Myers News-Press shows how the lawyer, despite the impact, manages to maintain his composure and returns to his table.
The events for which the man was tried occurred in 1990 when Zieler entered the home where Lisa Story, 32, was caring for Robin Cornell, 11. The man raped and suffocated the victims to death.
After the violent incident in court, the murderer was sentenced to death.
Last month, 10 of the 12 jurors who evaluated the evidence in the case recommended that sentence against the criminal after about five hours of deliberations. The panel previously found the man guilty of two counts of first-degree murder.
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