Man Who Served as Own Lawyer Finally Loses

A 38-year-old recovering crack addict who twice beat the district attorney’s office while acting as his own lawyer had his winning streak snapped Thursday, when a Pasadena Superior Court jury convicted him of failing to register as a sex offender.

The conviction on five felony counts means Eric Ellington, who never graduated from college, faces a sentence of 25 years to life as a thrice-convicted felon under the state’s three-strikes law.

One juror cried softly as the clerk read the verdict in a hushed courtroom packed with court reporters, prosecutors, sheriff’s deputies and other legal staff who knew Ellington, who liked to spend time at the courthouse between his trials.

Dressed in a gray suit, Ellington turned from the jurors when the first “guilty” was pronounced, then swiveled back and looked at them, his jaw clenched, as the remainder of the verdict was recited. He made no statements before one of six deputies present led him away in handcuffs.

Jurors declined to discuss the case after the verdict. “It was a very difficult decision,” said one who would not give her name. “It was a very tragic case.”

Sentencing is set for Aug. 10.

Ellington, who was convicted of rape 20 years ago, had alleged that charges in the current case were filed in retaliation for his bragging about his courtroom victories in an unpublished book and on a local cable TV system’s public access show. The case was opened at the request of a prosecutor who Ellington said overheard his boasts.

In a rambling, two-hour closing argument that drew a sharp rebuke from the judge for misstating evidence, Ellington lashed out at the district attorney’s office and the witnesses prosecutors had called.

If the investigator on the case “had simply given the defendant a phone call and said, ‘Look, buddy, you need to come down here and get registered so we can catch up on unsolved crimes like homicides and drive-bys,’ ” Ellington said, “the defendant would have hopped into his car and driven down to the police station.”

But in her closing argument, Deputy Dist. Atty. Patricia Wilkinson contended that Ellington had long known of his requirements under state law to register his whereabouts with police, pointing out that he had registered after being paroled in 1993 from state prison, where he served time for burglary.

“In spite of his knowledge of what his duties were, he did not intend to register when he was not on parole,” Wilkinson said.

She also highlighted what she called conflicting testimony by Ellington, his former roommate and his mother, whose office computer was seized during the trial. On it, Wilkinson said, was a letter Ellington had dictated to her that he introduced as evidence to show he had tried to register with police years ago.

Ellington said he had asked his mother to type the letter because the handwritten carbon copy he said he had was messy.

Wilkinson accused him of falsifying the evidence, saying that action and his testimony about it “only show his arrogance and contempt toward the truth.”

After the jury left the courtroom Thursday, Judge Judson W. Morris Jr. scolded Ellington, taking issue with what he called the defendant’s suggestions that the prosecution was motivated by racism.

“People like you do more damage to civil rights than the Ku Klux Klan,” said Morris, identifying himself as a lifetime member of the NAACP.

Morris also complimented Wilkinson, who assisted Ellington at times with evidence and technical matters, for her fairness and professionalism and later lamented that the defendant had insisted on acting as his own attorney.

“I wish you had had a lawyer representing you,” Morris said, “because I’ve seen some things go by . . . that could have dramatically affected your case.”