Man Defends Himself in ‘3 Strikes’ Dog Theft Case : Courts: Ty Clayton, who wants to call his parrot as a witness, could go to prison for life.

Ty Clayton has included his parrot Beaker on the witness list. He has asked the judge for a cellular phone, new eyeglasses and a ballpoint pen to replace his No. 2 pencils.

But Clayton insists he doesn’t need a lawyer. And so this week, the two-time convicted felon went on trial as his own defense attorney to fight dog-stealing charges that could land him in prison for life under California’s “three strikes and you’re out” law.

“I humbly apologize for my obvious inexperience as a defense lawyer,” the swap-meet vendor told an Orange County Superior Court jury Wednesday. “This is, in a sense, the first time I’ve ever acted totally by myself as a lawyer.”

Clayton, 44, is accused of stealing a collie mix named Buddy at gunpoint during a dispute with a Garden Grove couple over reward money for the missing dog, which Clayton reported finding.

Defense and prosecuting attorneys say Clayton appears to be the first Orange County defendant to be tried under the new law--which carries a mandatory 25-years-to-life sentence--without assistance from a defense attorney.

Even with so much at stake, legal experts say, criminal defendants have a constitutional right to defend themselves and there’s no way to force someone to accept counsel if they have been found mentally competent to stand trial, as Clayton has been.

Judges always warn defendants that it’s a mistake to represent themselves, but some won’t listen, said Carl C. Holmes, Orange County’s chief public defender.

“You’ve heard the old adage that a person who represents himself has a fool for a client,” Holmes said. “There’s much to support that adage.”

Clayton has two previous convictions for rape and is being held at Orange County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail while fighting the current charges of robbery and assault with a deadly weapon.

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His latest legal troubles began last September when Buddy, a 9-year-old collie and German shepherd mix, vanished. The dog’s owners, Lori Dellamore and her fiance Tony Grismer, plastered a Garden Grove neighborhood with signs. Dellamore’s ex-husband, who lived down the street from Clayton and had been keeping the dog, separately offered a $100 reward.

Both sides agree that on Sept. 8, Clayton called Lori Dellamore and said he had found a dog.

Prosecutors allege that when Dellamore and her fiance went to Clayton’s house he demanded money and pulled a gun during an argument over the reward.

That’s when Clayton allegedly dragged the dog away by the scruff of the neck and drove off, Dellamore and Grismer testified.

They never saw Buddy again.

“This dog was like a member of the family to them,” prosecutor Mel Jensen told jurors.

Dellamore, who testified with teary eyes, said she had pleaded with Clayton to return the dog, and told him he could retrieve the $100 reward later that night from her ex-husband, Robert Dellamore.

But Clayton told the jury Wednesday he wasn’t sure the couple were really the dog’s owners, largely because they didn’t have the reward money. Clayton said in his opening statements that he was eager to return the dog because the animal posed a threat to his beloved parrot, Beaker.

He has said there was no evidence that he pulled a gun, and he accused Grismer of starting the confrontation.

The unusual case has been drawing spectators this week from across the courthouse. And Clayton’s performance in court, most notably his lengthy cross-examinations, has been testing the patience of Superior Court Judge Robert Fitzgerald.

“Mr. Clayton, you’re falling on your sword,” Fitzgerald told Clayton at one point after the judge asked the jury to leave the courtroom for one of many breaks. “You’re taking too long to ask your questions.”

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The judge later limited Clayton’s cross-examinations to twice the time it took the prosecutor to question witnesses.

Clayton’s court file is filled with handwritten legal motions, many of which complain that he has been barred from the supplies needed to mount a defense.

In one document, Clayton listed his parrot on the witness list, saying the bird could help him prove that he never wanted to keep Buddy, which he usually refers to as the “doggie” in court filings.

Clayton was found competent to stand trial in December after being examined by two doctors, according to court records. He had been representing himself up to that time and chose to continue handling the case with help from two court-appointed private investigators, who have been at his side alternately during the trial, expected to continue into next week.