Accused of killing Woodmere man, he skips his own trial

Everything was in its place at the Lewis Slaughter murder trial in Mineola last week. The judge was on the bench, the jurors were in the jury box, and the prosecutor was on the podium.

But there was one notable exception: At the defense table, Slaughter was nowhere to be found.

Slaughter, 61, of Brooklyn, who is accused of taking part in the 1986 murder of plumbing store owner Samuel Quentzel, has made an unusual pair of decisions - to act as his own lawyer, and to refuse to attend his trial.

The result: A murder trial in which not a word is said on the defendant's behalf. Legal experts say that, while the situation is bizarre, it's entirely permissible.

"If he's given every opportunity to appear and he's decided not to, that's his choice," said Michael Cahill, a criminal law professor and associate dean at Brooklyn Law School.

Slaughter was arrested in June 2009, 23 years after prosecutors say he took part in the attempted robbery and murder of Quentzel, 54, outside his Woodmere home. Slaughter, already in prison on a murder conviction for a death related to a prior robbery, was arrested after police made a match between DNA found in saliva on a cigarette in the getaway car, and another man, Roger Williams.

After a complex sting operation, which included police secretly videotaping what prosecutors contend are incriminating conversations between Williams and Slaughter, police concluded Slaughter took part in Quentzel's murder and arrested him.

Williams pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter, agreeing to testify against Slaughter, and received a sentence of 10 to 20 years in prison.

Nassau County Judge James McCormack has instructed jurors not to infer anything from Slaughter's absence and the absence of a defense lawyer. He has appointed lawyer Christopher Devane, of Mineola, to sit in the courtroom gallery and take to Slaughter transcripts of the proceedings. But Devane is not a participant at trial, and cannot make objections or speak to jurors on Slaughter's behalf, lawyers said.

The trial has sped by in just a week without time taken for cross-examinations or defense witnesses. Prosecutor Michael Walsh is expected to make his closing argument this morning.

Walsh said that, while one might think that trying a case against an empty chair would be the easiest thing in the world, he's found it to be a challenge. Without a defense lawyer to object in court, the judge and prosecutors must be vigilant to make sure everything is done by the book, so an appellate court won't overturn the outcome, said Walsh's co-counsel, Michael Reiner.

In jury selection, prosecutors said they had to avoid two types of jurors - those who said Slaughter must be guilty if he's not raising a defense, and those who said they would feel uncomfortable convicting a man without hearing his side of the story.

In his closing argument, Walsh said that he's considering raising some arguments that a defense lawyer, if there were one, might raise, and then addressing those points.

Jury consultant Art Patterson said the strategy of bending over backward to appear fair is vital for prosecutors in a case such as this.

"The prosecutor has to be careful that the jury doesn't think this is some sort of sham proceeding or false justice," he said.

What's more, Patterson said, "If he loses, for the rest of his career people will tease him that he couldn't beat nobody."

How Nassau prosecutors say they caught Lewis Slaughter:

- ANN GIVENS