In new trial ordered by N.J. high court, a complication

Last summer, the New Jersey Supreme Court ordered a new trial for Vonte Skinner, saying the admission of rap lyrics he had written before he was arrested on charges of attempted murder prejudiced the jury in his earlier trial.

On Tuesday, as his new trial was about to commence, Skinner raised yet another legal issue, telling a judge he wanted to dismiss his lawyer and defend himself.

"I'm not going to continue to get railroaded," Skinner angrily told Superior Court Judge Jeanne T. Covert in Mount Holly a few minutes before a jury was to be selected. "If you all are going to screw me, I might as well do it [mount a defense] myself."

Covert asked him to discuss the matter with his attorney, Raymond Burke, and said she would decide how to proceed after jury selection.

Skinner, a Burlington Township man in his 30s, is standing trial on charges of attempted murder and aggravated assault in the Nov. 8, 2005, shooting of Lamont Peterson in Willingboro. Skinner allegedly shot Peterson, of Willingboro, in the head, neck, and torso at close range, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.

Peterson is expected to testify at the trial, which may begin this week.

Assistant Burlington County Prosecutor Erin Deitz alleges that the two men were drug dealers in a small gang and that Skinner was the "muscle." Skinner allegedly shot Peterson after he was accused of skimming the profits.

Skinner is being held in the Burlington County Jail on $101,000 bail. The trial is expected to go on through the end of the month.

In August, the justices agreed with an appellate panel that the 13 pages of lyrics Skinner wrote at least four years before the shooting were not relevant and could have poisoned the jury in his 2008 trial.

"The violent, profane, and disturbing rap lyrics authored by defendant constitute highly prejudicial evidence that bore little or no probative value as to any motive or intent behind the offense with which he was charged," the Supreme Court wrote in its unanimous decision.

Notebooks containing Skinner's handwritten lyrics were found by police in his car after his arrest. In the lyrics, Skinner calls himself "the Threat," and in one line he writes: "Yo, look in my eyes. You can see death comin'. Look in my palms, you can see what I'm gunnin' with."

Skinner was sentenced to 30 years in prison before the high court ruled he was entitled to a new trial.

At a hearing Tuesday before that trial was set to begin, Skinner told the judge that the prosecutor should be barred from alleging he used a firearm because the previous jury had found him not guilty of the charge that he illegally possessed a weapon to harm someone.

"That's double jeopardy," Skinner said.

At an earlier hearing, the judge ruled that the prosecutor may mention the weapon at trial.