Moral of the story? When self-representing, don't give witnesses the opportunity to point out that you robbed them at gunpoint.
Philome Cesar, charged with twenty-five counts of armed robbery following a three-month all-you-can-rob buffet of Pennsylvania businesses, made the fateful decision to self-represent. For the most part, Cesar’s defense has been effective, arguing that because the robber was wearing a fishnet mask, the real robber could only be identified by voice.
Unfortunately, Cesar decided to double-down on this claim by asking several witnesses present at robberies what the man sounded like. The result? According to Daryl Evans, a night auditor for Holiday Inn Express, “He sounded like you.”
This apparently caused the jury to break down in laughter, though Cesar wasn’t done until yet another witness admitted that the mystery robber sounded “exactly like” him. But even if Cesar had pulled off the cross-examinations without incident, he still hasn’t much of a case: When police arrested him in September 2010, they found a handgun similar to that described by prior victims, stolen goods, and the disguise in his car and apartment. [Source]
