Panhandle man who `mooned' jurors competent for retrial
PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) — A defendant who dropped his pants to "moon" a jury has been ruled mentally competent for retrial on charges he beat his girlfriend.
Cornell Jackson, 31, tried to persuade Circuit Judge Michael Overstreet that he was crazy and not faking mental illness at a hearing Tuesday but to no avail.
"I ain't in my right mind," Jackson insisted. He also told the judge: "I am going to the moon. The spirits are gonna take me to the moon."
Jackson, accused of attacking a former girlfriend on consecutive days in 2000, was convicted of armed burglary, aggravated battery and aggravated assault at two trials although he missed the first one and part of the second. He was sentenced to 33 years in prison.
He declined to attend the first trial and was removed from the second in July 2003 after shouting "cuckoo" and displaying his bare buttocks to jurors. [...]