Man Acting as Own Attorney Convicted : Trial: Ty Clayton is quickly found guilty of stealing a dog. Proceedings appeared to bore the jurors and frustrate the judge. Ex-felon faces possible life sentence under ‘three strikes’ law.

Jurors at times fought back church giggles. The rumpled defendant sought to have a pet parrot testify, sparred often with the judge and called the trial a joke.

But in the end it took the jury just 40 minutes Wednesday to convict Ty Clayton, 44, on charges that he stole a dog at gunpoint last year--a “three strikes” conviction that could land the ex-felon in prison for life.

Clayton, who acted as his own lawyer in the case, will be sentenced by Orange County Superior Court Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald on Sept. 22. Under the state’s “three strikes and you’re out” law, he faces a mandatory prison term of 25 years to life because he has two prior rape convictions.

The seven-day trial had become something of a courthouse sideshow as Clayton--a swap-meet vendor--became what is believed to be the first person in Orange County to be tried under the “three strikes” law without being represented by an attorney. His long-winded defense often left jurors shaking their heads and the judge low on patience.

“I’ve tried some bizarre cases--this is certainly different,” the prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Mel Jensen, said after the verdict was read.

Jurors declined to comment.

Clayton was accused of stealing a dog at gunpoint during a dispute with a Garden Grove couple over reward money for the missing pet, which Clayton reported finding.

The owners, Lori Dellamore and her fiance Tony Grismer, put up signs around a Garden Grove neighborhood seeking help finding their missing dog, a 9-year-old collie mix named Buddy. Dellamore’s ex-husband, who lived near Clayton and had been keeping the dog, offered a $100 reward. Clayton called Lori Dellamore after finding the dog Sept. 8.

When she and Grismer went to Clayton’s home, he demanded money and pulled a .25-caliber gun, then grabbed the dog and took it away, prosecutors said.

Clayton said he didn’t believe the couple were the dog’s real owners because they did not have the reward money. He said in court that Grismer attacked him; he argued there was no evidence that he pulled a gun. No gun was recovered but police found .25-caliber ammunition in Clayton’s Garden Grove home.

Jensen said Clayton gave the dog to a friend, who took it to a pound. The dog was destroyed.

“They would want their dog back, but that’s not possible,” Jensen said, adding that the dog was such an important part of the family that the couple had its picture taken professionally.

The case, during which Clayton sought unsuccessfully to call his parrot Beaker as a witness, drew to a close Wednesday with some of the same oddball touches that had drawn spectators from around the courthouse.

Clayton questioned a Garden Grove police officer. He took the witness stand in his own defense--limited by Fitzgerald to a 30-minute monologue. And he delivered a closing argument--this time limited to 60 minutes--in which he painted himself a victim of the courts and compared himself to the dog.

“The poor helpless dog, just like the defendant, was bagged, tagged and destroyed,” said Clayton, standing at the lectern during his closing argument. “I was just something for the prosecution to destroy--just like that dog.”

The trial appeared to have exhausted just about everyone’s patience. Some jurors looked bored. Others gently shook their heads. One woman held a note pad to her face to conceal a smile as Clayton testified.

And, seeking to move Clayton along, Fitzgerald warned it would do no good to stall the trial by calling more witnesses.

“It’s time for you to do your business and get on with your life, wherever that takes you,” Fitzgerald told Clayton near the close of the trial.

Clayton answered glumly: “I think I know where the court wants it to take me.”