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SALT LAKE CITY — Convicted killer Curtis Allgier has lost his right to legal counsel during his appeal after repeatedly threatening his court-appointed lawyers.
The Utah Supreme Court on Friday upheld a motion by his attorneys to withdraw from the case, leaving Allgier to defend himself.
The court found that Allgier on his own filed multiple motions to disqualify his lawyers without adequate reasons, which caused delays to the appeals court process.
"More importantly, Mr. Allgier has made a series of threats to multiple appointed appellate attorneys, and his pro se pleadings provide the court with no reason to assume that the appointment of another attorney would avoid similar problems," the court wrote.
In addition to threats, Allgier filed bar complaints and made derogatory and hostile statements about his lawyers in court motions.
"They are the dumbest … clowns I’ve ever had the EXTREME dishonorable displeasure of being forced to know were even somehow on the planet, let alone incompetently and ineffectively misrepresented by and NEVER … will they have the honor of being in my Aryan GOD presence or having any kind of contact with me period!!" Allgier wrote in one motion.
Allgier — a white supremacist most recognized for the tattoos that cover nearly his entire body, including his eyelids — shot and killed corrections officer Stephen Anderson in 2007, after Anderson had escorted Allgier from the prison to University Hospital.
After shooting Anderson with the officer's own gun, Allgier fled the hospital on foot and stole a vehicle before leading police on a high-speed chase at speeds exceeding 100 mph.
When the vehicle's tires were spiked, Allgier continued to flee on foot, eventually running into an Arby's restaurant on Redwood Road. There, Allgier pointed a gun at the head of an Arby's employee before a patron was able to wrest the gun from him.
Allgier pleaded guilty to aggravated murder, disarming a peace officer, aggravated escape, aggravated robbery and possession of a dangerous weapon in October 2012. He also pleaded no contest to three counts of attempted aggravated murder.
In exchange for the plea, prosecutors took the death penalty off the table. A 3rd District judge sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Allgier later appealed his conviction.
