An accused California serial killer may be free to act as his own attorney, but the judge doesn't have to like it.
Joseph Naso, on trial for the murder of four women, was repeatedly scolded by Marin County Superior Court Judge Andrew Sweet for speaking out of turn and violating trial decorum Tuesday, Reuters reports.
Judge Sweet called multiple breaks to berate Naso.
"I'm going to admonish you now and ask you to stop interrupting the witness," Sweet said during one such recess. "Act like an attorney in my courtroom."
"I'm not going to allow you to turn these proceedings into a circus," Sweet later added.
Naso, 79, has pleaded not guilty in the decades-old slayings of four prostitutes, the Associated Press reports. The victims, who Naso allegedly met through his photography work, each had identical first and last initials: 18-year-old Roxene Roggasch in 1977; 22-year-old Carmen Colon in 1978; 38-year-old Pamela Parsons in 1993; and 31-year-old Tracy Tafoya in 1994.
On Monday, he gave his own opening statement in which he shared childhood photos and told his personal history.
"I'm not the monster they say killed these women," he said. "I don't kill people and there's no evidence of that in my writings and photography."
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