Acting as Own Attorney : Rapist, in Shackles, Gets 32-Year Term

A convicted rapist who a prosecutor said put on “a fine example of manipulation of the criminal justice system” had to be shackled to a wheelchair Wednesday and rolled into San Fernando Superior Court for his sentencing.

Once there, Robert Abram Smith, 36, who has been acting as his own attorney, rambled for five hours about a motion for a new trial and postponement of sentencing. But Commissioner Irwin H. Garfinkel sentenced the North Hollywood man to the maximum term of 32 years in prison for four counts of rape.

“These cases have to end sometime, and this is the moment,” Garfinkel said as he asked Deputy Dist. Atty. Steve Ogden to complete his arguments after only five minutes. “I think I’m able to separate the wheat from the chaff in this.”

Sheriff’s Sgt. Tom Robinson testified at the sentencing hearing that he smelled what he believed to be alcohol on Smith’s breath. He said Smith refused to get on the bus transporting prisoners from County Jail to the courthouse and fought with bailiffs once he arrived.

Robinson said he did not know how Smith could have consumed alcohol while in jail.

Bailiffs said they put Smith in the wheelchair, handcuffed his hands to the armrests and shackled his legs to the bottom of the chair to avoid harming him during any further disturbance.

Smith was charged with five counts of rape and two counts of burglary for attacks during November and December, 1983, on three elderly women at the North Hollywood apartment development where he lived.

Smith dismissed his public defender so he could act as his own attorney, and convinced judges to delay his trial more than eight months. The trial finally began in May, and lasted one month. Jurors acquitted him of the burglary charges and convicted him of four of the rape counts after 10 days of deliberation.