OLATHE, Kan. (AP) - A white supremacist from Missouri accused of killing three people at two Jewish centers in Kansas told a judge this week will keep his court-appointed attorneys "for now."
Frazier Glenn Miller Jr., 74, on Friday told District Judge Kelly Ryan that he didn't think he could get a fair trial unless he represented himself, The Kansas City Star (http://bit.ly/1MMijU5) reported.
"They (his three attorneys) get paid by my enemy," Miller said. "I don't trust anybody who works for the government."
Miller, of Aurora, Missouri, is accused of killing Dr. William Lewis Corporon, 69, and his 14-year-old grandson, Reat Griffin Underwood, who were at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City on April 13, 2014, for a singing contest audition. He also is accused of fatally shooting 53-year-old Terri LaManno, who was visiting her mother at a Jewish retirement home in nearby Overland Park.
None of the victims was Jewish.
In several phone calls to the Associated Press last year, Miller said he killed the three because he thought he was dying and he felt it was his duty. He said he regretted shooting the teenager.
He has told the AP and other media outlets that he planned and executed the fatal attacks, and that it was his intent to use the trial as a means to "put the Jews on trial where they belong."
Johnson County prosecutors, who are seeking the death penalty, argued in court filings that failing to honor Miller's request to represent himself could lead to a conviction being thrown out on appeal.
On Friday, Ryan questioned Miller - also known as Frazier Glenn Cross - about prior court outbursts in which he demanded to fire his lawyers and represent himself. When pressed about his decision, Miller said he needed more time to think and would retain his current defense team.
Last week Ryan set an Aug. 17 trial date over the objections of Miller's lawyers, who said they needed more time to prepare an adequate defense. But Miller insisted on a trial within the 150-day time frame set by Kansas law, and he told the judge he was ready to go to trial in 30 days if he was allowed to represent himself.
When seeking permission to have Internet access in his jail cell, Miller wrote to the court: "If firing my attorneys is the only way to gain approval of this motion, then I herewith fire them. I will represent myself pro se."
He said being able to contact potential witnesses personally "is 100 times more valuable to my defense than any number of government-paid attorneys, who I naturally distrust for blatantly obvious political and societal reasons."
The trial is expected to last six to eight weeks. It will be Johnson County's first death penalty trial in more than a decade, and questionnaires will be mailed to 1,000 potential jurors.