By Marcia Barajas
SANTA BARBARA, CA – Suleiman Aref Kamarah, II, was in Santa Barbara County Superior Court Monday concerning four first degree felony charges, all of which involve burglary, from a Jan. 13, 2018, incident.
And he wasn’t happy about his legal representation.
When called for arraignment, Judge Thomas Adams was seemingly frustrated with the defendant when he agitatedly claimed that he was being treated unfairly.
Kamarah, clearly upset, asserted to the court, “I’ll represent myself because this is all BS. Nobody is telling me what’s going on. I keep getting arrested over bullsh*t. The police didn’t even let me explain to them what was going on. I don’t need legal assistance. I’m done letting people talk.”
Judge Adams immediately replied, “You are facing four felony charges.” The judge gave Kamarah a chance to decide if he was going to represent himself, but commented that would be “foolish on his part” because of the charges he was going to face.
Public Defender Aaron Corey stated that Kamarah wished to have a “Marsden Hearing” requesting the firing of his attorney. The court set up a break-out room to further discuss the Marsden matter.
In another case, Ryan James Banon was in court for a charge of assault with a deadly weapon. The judge granted pre-trial release for Banon. His public defender filed for a mental health diversion motion. The court granted a gun restraining order as far as weapon concerns go, to prevent Banon from obtaining dangerous weapons in the meantime.
The court set further hearings to take place on Aug. 9.
