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The suspect in the 2019 murder of a Harris County sheriff’s deputy fired his legal counsel on Monday and decided to represent himself in the case, per reports from Houston-based media outlets.
Fifty-year-old Robert Solis stands accused of fatally shooting Deputy Sandeep Singh Dhaliwal during a traffic stop.
Opening statements in the murder trial weren’t yet given when Solis elected to let Allen Isbell, his defense attorney go, Houston CBS affiliate KHOU reported.
Isbell told KHOU that the court examined his former client and deemed him to have “sufficient knowledge.”
"It's his right under the Constitution,” he told the station.
KHOU reported that the state began the trial by providing body camera footage that appeared to show Solis standing over a dying Dhaliwal, who was allegedly shot in the head.
“[The] camera pans up toward the heavens you will see that the man standing over Dhaliwal holding that smoking gun is none other than Robert Solis,” prosecutor Katy Warren told a jury, according to the station.
Houston ABC affiliate KTRK reported that the defendant told the presiding judge he was unprepared, which allowed the prosecution to call several witnesses to the stand.
Per KTRK, Solis opted to delay his opening statement and will present it when the state rests its case.
Solis said that he had “his own reasons” to serve as his own counsel when grilled about the decision, according to Houston NBC affiliate KPRC.
KPRC reported that prior to the death of Dhaliwal, Solis already built a criminal history, having been paroled from a 20-year prison sentence for a 2002 aggravated kidnapping in 2014.
This year was supposed to be the last year of his parole.
Dhaliwal, who was a 41-year-old married father of three, earned the distinction as the first peace officer with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) to be permitted to wear a turban.
The late deputy was a practicing Sikh, and the turban was an integral part of the faith.