ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Orange County's chief judge called a death row inmate's bluff. John Huggins was refusing to cooperate with his lawyers and doctors for months.
Huggins came to court with his heels dug in, but Chief Judge Perry was not going to lose this test of wills. If Huggins kept refusing to cooperate, he was going to have to spend ten weeks in an isolation cell under close psychological observation.
Huggins caved.
"You have yourself a deal," he told Judge Perry.
Huggins has educated himself in prison. There is a guarded but apparent respect between Huggins and Judge Perry.
"I think I understand what you're trying to do, judge," Huggins said.
What Huggins is trying to do is avoid his death sentence. He's been found to have faked mental illness in the past to stall, and another defense doctor claims Huggins is incompetent.
Now, Huggins wants to start all over again and represent himself. He's just begun examining 40,000 documents from the 13-year-old case.
"If I'm going to be railroaded, I can do that myself," Huggins said.
Huggins carjacked young wife and mother Carla Larson in a Publix parking lot in 1997. The Disney construction engineer was on her lunch hour. He strangled her and left her naked body in the woods. Larson's husband, Jim, had already lost his sister, Sonja, to serial killer Danny Rolling in Gainesville seven years earlier.
Judge Perry is still ready with that ultimatum of solitary confinement if Huggins changes his mind.
"Mr. Huggins has given me his word and he has always been a man of his word with this court. So, Huggins will be examined by two psychiatrists," Judge Perry ordered.
If they find him competent, the judge will consider whether Huggins is legally justified in asking for new lawyers.
WFTV
