Accused Planned Parenthood shooter wants to represent himself

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo — A man accused of killing three people and wounding nine others in a Nov. 27 shooting rampage at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs told a judge on Wednesday that he distrusts his lawyers and wants to represent himself.

Robert Lewis Dear, 57, who declared himself guilty and a "warrior for the babies" during a courtroom outburst on Dec. 9, stands accused of 179 felony counts, including charges of first-degree murder, attempted murder and assault.

"I want to be my own attorney," Dear told the judge at the outset of the hearing El Paso County court.

Judge Gilbert Martinez admonished Dear that he should trust his attorney, but Dear argued against that.

"How can I trust him when he says in the newspaper that I'm 'incompetent?'" Dear, a South Carolina native who once earned a living as a self-employed art salesman, asked the judge.

Martinez then cleared the courtroom of prosecutors and spectators in order to discuss the matter privately with Dear and his attorneys.

Dear was apparently referring in his remarks to media coverage of his earlier court appearance, in which his public defender, Daniel King, told the judge, "I cannot represent that Mr. Dear is competent."

The judge has imposed a gag order barring law enforcement and attorneys from discussing details of the case outside court.

Dear has been held without bond since he surrendered at the end of a bloody five-hour siege inside the Planned Parenthood clinic that police said began when he opened fire with a rifle outside the building and then stormed inside.

Shot dead during the rampage were a U.S. Army veteran and a stay-at-home mother of two children who happened to be in the clinic's waiting area, as well as a policeman from a nearby university who responded to the scene.

It was the first deadly attack on a U.S. abortion provider since 2009, when physician George Tiller was gunned down at the Kansas church he attended.