Angry Judge Refuses to Quit Wisely Case : Disqualification Issue Delays Sentencing of Convicted Murderer

An angry Superior Court Judge Manuel A. Ramirez told convicted murderer Willie Ray Wisely on Tuesday that he would not disqualify himself from court proceedings that could give Orange County’s most notorious jailhouse lawyer a lifelong prison term.

Ramirez, whom Wisely had served with a disqualification motion Monday, was clearly annoyed at the latest in a long list of legal maneuvers by Wisely aimed at delaying sentencing for his 1982 conviction for the first-degree murder of his stepfather.

But the proceedings will be delayed until the disqualification issue is settled.

Series of Legal Motions

Ramirez had been set Monday to rule on Wisely’s motion for a new trial, and, if denied, to sentence him. Instead, he spent the day responding to a series of legal motions presented by Wisely. The move to disqualify the judge came at the end of the day, forcing Ramirez to reconvene the case early the next day.

After entering the courtroom Tuesday, the judge made it clear that he was in no mood for any more of Wisely’s motions. He refused to allow San Francisco attorney Nina Wilder, Wisely’s new advisory counsel, to address the court and sternly told the defendant, “I am not disqualifying myself from this case.”

When Wisely attempted to speak to Ramirez, the judge angrily told him that the court was in recess and left the room.

Ramirez said a different judge would file a written response within the next few days that would answer Wisely’s motion to remove him from the case.

No date was set for resumption of the proceedings, which will remain in recess at least until the judge’s written response is issued. Wilder said the defense would await the response before making any new moves.

“Yes, the judge is fed up,” she added. “I think he was fed up yesterday (Monday). I think everybody is fed up.”

Wisely said Monday that he filed the disqualification motion against Ramirez because the judge had already made up his mind to deny Wisely’s moves to delay sentencing.

Wisely’s father-in-law, Joe Harrington, who has retained Wilder’s firm to help prepare the defense, said Wisely believed that it was a “foregone conclusion” that Ramirez would sentence Wisely to life imprisonment.

A jury found Wisely guilty of murdering his stepfather, Robert Bray, 61, by rigging the 2,000-pound cab of his truck to fall on him as the older man was repairing the vehicle on a Huntington Beach street. Although Wisely was sentenced to die in the gas chamber, a judge later overturned that verdict and ordered a new penalty trial.

High Marks

Since then, Wisely, 34, has spent his time poring over documents in the case and educating himself on California criminal law. Lawyers on both sides of the case have given him high marks for his performance in court, where he has been assisted by Gail Marie Harrington, 25, the law clerk he married last year in a secret Christmas Eve jailhouse ceremony.

Harrington, a third-year law student at Western State University in Fullerton, has had troubles of her own since then. She has been released on $25,000 bond after her arrest for allegedly smuggling drugs to another inmate in Orange County Jail. Harrington has denied the charge, which she and Wisely believe to be part of an orchestrated attempt by county officials to harass them.

Wisely, however, remains one of the most privileged inmates at County Jail. He is the sole occupant of an eight-man cell block, which is filled with legal documents and law books, and he has use of a computer and telephone.