STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Federal prosecutors in Florida are making their case again today against Ryan Routh. He's the man charged with trying to assassinate Donald Trump last September when he was running for president. This was the second alleged attempt on Trump's life last year. Of course, the first one happened in Pennsylvania when a man fired at him. This one happened at Trump's golf course in West Palm Beach. Routh has pleaded not guilty to all the charges, and he is representing himself in court. NPR's Greg Allen was at the courthouse. Greg, good morning.
GREG ALLEN, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: How's the defense attorney doing?
ALLEN: Well, Ryan Routh seems relaxed and largely unruffled by the proceedings and the possible life sentence that he faces if he's convicted. At the same time, though, he seems totally unprepared to defend himself against the charges or to do anything to raise questions in jurors' minds about the case the prosecutors are making against him. You know, he's not an attorney. And he told the judge that he had a profound disagreement with his attorneys about his defense, and so he's representing himself.
But yesterday, his opening statement did not go well. He made a bunch of vague comments and asked questions that seemed to have very little relevance to the events and the crimes that he's charged with. At one point, he said, why are we here? Is it not to care for one another? Federal Judge Aileen Cannon interrupted him and warned him. She said he was close to, in her words, making a mockery of the dignity of this courthouse. And she ended his opening statement after just several minutes, which is short of the 40 minutes that had been allocated.
INSKEEP: I guess, if it's the normal process of a trial, prosecutors also had their opening statement yesterday.
ALLEN: Right. And prosecutor John Shipley had a very straightforward case - told jurors that the plot to kill Trump that Routh allegedly concocted was, in his words, carefully crafted and deadly serious. A key witness was former Secret Service agent Robert Fercano, who's now with the Department of Homeland Security. Now, he's the agent who was patrolling a hole ahead of where Donald Trump was golfing on September 15 of last year.
INSKEEP: Oh, yeah.
ALLEN: Fercano said he saw a face of an individual in the bushes near - in the fence line near the sixth hole. He got off his golf court and said, hey, thinking at first he was possibly encountering a homeless person and there really wasn't a threat. Fercano said he heard a groan, and the person in the bushes then smiled at him. And then he said he saw a gun barrel protruding from the fence line, which moved toward him as he started backing away. At that point, the agent fired on the position where the gun was. Fercano said he was no more than 5 feet from the fence line where the gunman was positioned. And in the courtroom yesterday, he pointed out Routh as the man that he saw in the bushes that day.
INSKEEP: Compelling testimony. So how did Routh react?
ALLEN: Well, he really did nothing to attack the agent's credibility or his ability to identify him as the gunman. He started by asking the agent, isn't it great to be alive? - which kind of threw everybody. At one point, Routh suggested that if the gunman had intended to attack the agent, he would have lifted up the rifle and fired at him. In fact, authorities say the gun was never fired that day. One of the charges that Routh faces is assaulting a federal officer, and he seemed to be trying to undercut that charge. And then later, he had another strange interaction with a prosecution witness.
INSKEEP: What do you mean?
ALLEN: Well, there was this witness named Tommy McGee, who was a bystander that day driving by the golf club when he heard gunshots. He saw Routh run out of the bushes and across the street. McGee got a good look at him. He followed him, got his license plate number and later identified him. But to - yesterday, Routh called him an American hero for stopping and said, I celebrate your efforts. And so this trial is going - unusual and going very quickly. So it'll probably end quicker than the 3 1/2 weeks that the judge allocated.
INSKEEP: OK. NPR's Greg Allen in Miami. Thanks so much.
ALLEN: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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