A Palm Beach man found out that talk isn't so cheap when he was sentenced to six months hard time for a courtroom outburst during a murder trial.
Circuit Judge Lucy Chernow Brown handed down the stiff sentence to David Coole Tuesday, after the 23-year-old voiced his opinion on the trial of his friend Patrick "P.J." Melehan, according to the Palm Beach Post.
"P.J. is innocent," Coole blurted out, after giving testimony in the trial. Judge Brown asked Coole why she shouldn't hold him in contempt of court, and unsatisfied with his answer, sentenced him to the maximum penalty - five month and 29 days in the slammer.
"It's very rare. Very," said John Rivera, a public defender for 25 years who said he's heard of the stiff sentence being handed down just a couple of times before.
Melehan, 18, is charged with second-degree murder, accused of impaling 18-year-old Carlos Lopez with a six-foot steel rod during a 2007 confrontation.
Melehan had pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers have noted that none of Melehan's fingerprints or DNA were found on the steel rod.
