Spooner had entered two pleas to the homicide charge: not guilty and not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, reports CBS News.
In an interesting twist to this tragic case, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Jeffrey A. Wagner, who presides over the trial, and Spooner’s defense lawyer, Franklyn Gimbel, are in-laws.
Wagner’s son, Benjamin, is married to Gimbel’s daughter, Rachel. The pair has a young daughter, reports Milwaukee’s Journal Sentinel.
“I believe I’ve gotten no special, favorable treatment whatsoever in this case or any time I’ve ever appeared in this court, nor anybody in my office,” Gimbel said.
Typically when there is an “appearance of impropriety,” the judge voluntarily recuses himself, but Wagner has made no such move.
The trial now enters the second phase, which is to determine whether or not Spooner was in sound mind when he killed Simmons.
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