Suspect in death of Fort Myers police officer wants to represent himself during trial

Wisner Desmaret, who is accused of killing Fort Myers police officer Adam Jobbers-Miller, wants to represent himself during his death penalty trial.

Desmaret was in court on Tuesday to review the jury pool, but he interrupted the proceeding, hoping to voice his concerns about his lawyer to the judge.

Desmaret said he does not trust his attorneys and accused them of taking drugs on the job and asked the judge to let him represent himself.

But Judge Robert Branning denied the request.

“To me, to my knowledge from what I’ve seen and heard and been through on the street I could pick better jurors and I could read the jurors probably better than they can,” Desmaret told Branning.

“They not even doing nothing for me,” Desmaret said.

Branning’s response?

“That’s not accurate.”

Branning listened to Desmaret but refused to let him fire his lawyers and represent himself.

Branning said he does not believe Desmaret has enough legal knowledge to represent himself.

Branning cleared the courtroom of everyone except for himself, the prosecution and the defense. He did this so that Desmaret can speak freely about the jury pool.

Desmaret is expected to stand trial beginning on Sept. 6.