Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Florida man accused of Trump assassination attempt seeks to act as his own attorney | Crime Alert 6AM 07.15.25

Transcript

Florida man accused of Trump assassination attempt seeks to act as his own attorney | Crime Alert 6AM 07.15.25 · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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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
• 1:53
  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
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: to crime online dot com and please join us for
• 5:45
  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.