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"The 1st chance I get I'm going to do something real bad to one of them," an angry Marvin Gray told Denver County Court Judge Robert Patterson. The judge had just refused to replace Michael Linge and John Ventura as Gray's attorneys. "If I get a chance, I will try to kill one of them," Gray, 46, said. "I've killed 23 people, and I'd like to make that 24 and 25." Any harm that might befall the attorneys would be Patterson's fault, Gray said. Gray's arms are so muscular that jailers have attached modified leg irons to his wrists instead of regular handcuffs. Gray said the 1st chance he gets he'll wrap the chains that secure his hands around his attorneys' necks. Gray said his outrage is aimed at the entire public defender system, not just Ventura and Linge, though he called them "idiots." Denver police Detective David Neil said that over the past month and a half Gray has confessed to 15 murders during interviews at police headquarters - interviews initiated by Gray. The confessions have prompted Denver authorities to file two murder charges against Gray, and Neil is notifying 5 other agencies in and out of Colorado about Gray's claims. "I don't have any reason to disbelieve him as yet," Neil said. Neil also said he doesn't think the threats against the lawyers are bluffs. "If he isn't allowed to represent himself or have an attorney other than the public defender's office, he is very capable of doing something that will conflict them out. It could be as simple as to punch one of them out." Gray claims the public defender's office has poorly represented him in the past. Gray asked Patterson to let him represent himself or appoint an independent advisory lawyer. He said Linge and Ventura specifically upset him during a jailhouse visit. The attorneys stepped outside into a hallway and started laughing about his cases with a 3rd lawyer. That violated his attorney-client privilege, he said. Gray has a long and violent criminal history, including the 1975 shooting and wounding of South San Francisco's police chief during a conference in Denver; the 1982 stabbing death of Jolene Sue Gardner, the 21-year-old girlfriend of a Gray friend; and the rapes of 2 fellow prison inmates. He also stood trial in connection with the beating death of another prisoner in a holding cell but was acquitted. Gray was in court Thursday for his preliminary hearing on the Sept. 15, 1975, Denver slaying of Joseph Didier, 26, a crime that happened the same day he shot the South San Francisco chief. In a videotaped confession played in court Thursday, Gray said he had been working at a downtown hotel when he stole a handgun from a guest room. He said he was "out running around" a few days later when he saw a man (Didier) walking across a parking lot headed for his car. He said he asked the man for a light, but the man said he didn't have one. Gray said he then demanded money from the man. After the man gave him some cash, Gray said he shot him in the chest to eliminate a witness. Public defenders Ventura and Linge represented Gray during Thursday's preliminary hearing despite Gray's vehement objections. Gray was ordered to sit in the jury box by himself, with the public defenders seated across the courtroom. 7 sheriff's deputies kept a close watch on Gray. "My life is an existence" Gray told Judge Patterson that having an attorney was a "waste of taxpayer money," saying he might plead guilty to the crimes or confess during the middle of trial. "I'll get on the stand and say, "I did it, I did it, I did it.' I'm not trying to get out of something," said Gray. "I don't care. I've got 3 life sentences. My life is an existence, not a life. For the last 8 years I've been sitting in a concrete cell. It is not even an existence." In July 1992, Gray stole a truck and robbed a woman at gunpoint in Denver. In 1993 he was convicted of aggravated robbery and sentenced to life in prison as a habitual criminal. Lying on a table and being executed by lethal injection would be a "hell of a lot better than what I did to some of my victims," he said. Neil said many people are wondering why Gray has come forward. "He has indicated to me that obviously he is locked down 23 hours a day. He has no control over his destiny. His life, as he sees it right now, is that concrete cell," Neil said. "The only thing I can foresee is that if one of these jurisdictions - whether it be us or one of the others in Colorado or one of them from outside Colorado - finds him guilty and gives him the death penalty. "In other words, he can go through and have appeals, and then all of a sudden he decides, "Hey, just put me to death,' just like the Oklahoma City bomber is doing right now," Neil said. The Denver district attorney's office has not yet decided whether to seek the death penalty against Gray in the Didier slaying or the 2nd homicide case filed against him last month. That case stems from the 1992 killing of Joseph Soliz, 51, who died when 2 men burst into his west Denver house and opened fire. Neil said Gray has asked for no special favors in return for his confessions. Neil said he and Gray continue to talk but only Gray can request the interviews. "I can't go out and ask him, because obviously the public defender's office has sent me a request not to contact him. But he can contact me. And if he contacts me, I bring him in," Neil said. |
