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"I'm baaack," Che Sosa announced with a Cheshire-cat grin to Judge Charles Grabau.
Sosa, 37, who faces multiple rape charges in a 2001 Quincy case, scanned the courtroom and found John Courtney, his former lawyer whom he stabbed with a makeshift knife during jury selection on Tuesday.
"Are you still breathing?" Sosa asked.
In a hearing that lasted about 10 minutes, Grabau appointed Joseph F. Krowski as Sosa's new attorney. He continued the case until May 8 to give Krowski time to prepare. Grabau also recused himself, saying he could be called as a witness in the attack.
Sosa's attack stopped jury selection, and forced Grabau to dismiss the jurors already selected.
Following yesterday's hearing, Courtney said he had been stabbed in the shoulder with the knife, a 5-to-6-inch piece of sharpened plexiglass. He had a few cuts on the bridge of his nose, and his glasses hung slightly askew, but the attorney said he wasn't shaken by the attack.
"The reality is, the injuries I suffered are minor," he said. Courtney was treated and released Tuesday at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston.
Courtney said he didn't know for sure why his client, after weeks of hearings and work and hours of proceedings that day, suddenly lunged at him at that moment.
"I don't know the entire answer to that, but I don't want to get into it," he said.
Sosa didn't say anything when he attacked, and the attorney snapped his fingers as he said his client moved "just like that."
Courtney said he didn't see the knife, and didn't even know he'd been stabbed until some time afterward.
"I thought I had just been punched," he said.
No new charges have been filed yet against Sosa in connection with the attack.
"It's still under investigation," said Michael Connolly, a spokesman for Norfolk County District Attorney William R. Keating.
Sosa is being held at MCI-Cedar Junction in Walpole because the Middlesex County Jail in Cambridge is full. He currently face charges in Somerville District Court.
State Department of Correction spokesman Diane Wiffin declined to discuss Sosa's criminal history, but said his past worried officials enough to warn police and court officers "long ago" that he might be dangerous.
"I'm baaack," Che Sosa announced with a Cheshire-cat grin to Judge Charles Grabau.
Sosa, 37, who faces multiple rape charges in a 2001 Quincy case, scanned the courtroom and found John Courtney, his former lawyer whom he stabbed with a makeshift knife during jury selection on Tuesday.
"Are you still breathing?" Sosa asked.
In a hearing that lasted about 10 minutes, Grabau appointed Joseph F. Krowski as Sosa's new attorney. He continued the case until May 8 to give Krowski time to prepare. Grabau also recused himself, saying he could be called as a witness in the attack.
Sosa's attack stopped jury selection, and forced Grabau to dismiss the jurors already selected.
Following yesterday's hearing, Courtney said he had been stabbed in the shoulder with the knife, a 5-to-6-inch piece of sharpened plexiglass. He had a few cuts on the bridge of his nose, and his glasses hung slightly askew, but the attorney said he wasn't shaken by the attack.
"The reality is, the injuries I suffered are minor," he said. Courtney was treated and released Tuesday at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston.
Courtney said he didn't know for sure why his client, after weeks of hearings and work and hours of proceedings that day, suddenly lunged at him at that moment.
"I don't know the entire answer to that, but I don't want to get into it," he said.
Sosa didn't say anything when he attacked, and the attorney snapped his fingers as he said his client moved "just like that."
Courtney said he didn't see the knife, and didn't even know he'd been stabbed until some time afterward.
"I thought I had just been punched," he said.
No new charges have been filed yet against Sosa in connection with the attack.
"It's still under investigation," said Michael Connolly, a spokesman for Norfolk County District Attorney William R. Keating.
Sosa is being held at MCI-Cedar Junction in Walpole because the Middlesex County Jail in Cambridge is full. He currently face charges in Somerville District Court.
State Department of Correction spokesman Diane Wiffin declined to discuss Sosa's criminal history, but said his past worried officials enough to warn police and court officers "long ago" that he might be dangerous.
"This was an inmate with a very high level of dangerousness," she said.
Wiffin said all inmates are strip-searched before transfer from state prison to court, and in Sosa's case on Tuesday, "We followed our procedures."
Connolly declined to comment on security procedures for Sosa's transfer, either on Tuesday or yesterday, indicating Middlesex County Sheriff's deputies were responsible for the transfer. Sosa was arraigned in an unrelated case in Middlesex County before the Norfolk case, Connolly said, making Middlesex authorities responsible for Sosa's transfer until the Middlesex case is resolved.
The Middlesex County Sheriff's office did not return several telephone calls yesterday.
Sean Murphy can be reached at 781-433-8337, or smurphy@cnc.com.
