A Florida woman was removed from her own sentencing hearing after she bizarrely labeled the courtroom a “synagogue of the devil” and unleashed a stream of profanity. This unusual outburst led the judge to eject her.
Amanda Cook, 41, received a life sentence on Thursday after being found guilty of the brutal murder of her 64-year-old roommate in 2019.
As she entered the Naples courtroom, Cook exhibited erratic behavior, accompanied by several court officials.
Clad in an orange jumpsuit, she reportedly declared, “I’ve met my lawyer. We need a military tribunal. This is Satan’s synagogue.”
The presiding judge, Joseph Foster, tried to read Cook’s sentence but found himself so bewildered by her antics that he had to remove her from the proceedings.
While being escorted out, Cook shouted, “Hey! We just got caught! Stand back, they’re coming in!”
A jury convicted Cook of second-degree murder with a dangerous weapon in December.
Court documents indicate that Cook, then 35, attacked her roommate, Karen Leity, with a 9-pound cast iron microphone stand in their North Naples apartment on July 3, 2019.
After the attack, Cook fled to her mother’s home nearby but later returned to the apartment with her mother, who reported the incident to 911.
When deputies arrived around 2:10 a.m., they found Leity dead on the living room floor.
Cook claimed that the two had argued and that Leity fell on top of something, becoming unresponsive.
However, Dr. Manfred Borges, the deputy chief medical examiner, determined that Leity’s injuries from blunt force trauma were not consistent with a mere fall.
Cook was arrested and charged with murder, and court records indicated that her actions exhibited a lack of premeditation.
Investigators found what appeared to be the murder weapon, which matched the injuries sustained by Leity. The victim’s DNA was found on the stand, while traces of Cook’s fingerprints and DNA were located on the base and top of the stand.
Borges also testified that Leity’s injuries resembled those often seen in high-impact car accidents.
