A state appeals court panel today upheld the conviction of a man who led officers on a chase in a stolen Bentley belonging to TV fitness guru Jillian Michaels.
A three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected the defense’s contention that a judge in Van Nuys erred in revoking Gerjuan Harmon’s right to represent himself near the end of his second trial, in which he was found guilty of first-degree burglary and grand theft of personal property.
Jurors had deadlocked on those charges in his first trial, but convicted him of unlawful driving or taking of a vehicle, evading an officer, resisting executive officers and misdemeanor hit-and-run driving. He was acquitted of grand theft auto.
“The trial court did not abuse its discretion in terminating defendant’s self-representation,” the appellate court justices found in a 12- page ruling. “Defendant made repeated personal attacks on the court, refused to conduct himself according to the rules of courtroom protocol when he raised his voice and used profanity, and time and again chose to flaunt the court’s evidentiary rulings by alluding to excluded evidence in front of the jury.”
Michaels’ Hermes purse, which contained the keys to her 2011 Bentley GT, was taken from a kitchen table in her Malibu home on July 3, 2012, as she and her family watched television in another room.
Michaels — known for her work on the reality TV show “The Biggest Loser” — discovered the theft the next morning and reported the car stolen.
Harmon crashed the luxury sedan during a July 4, 2012, police chase and was captured after a scuffle with officers. He was sentenced in September 2014 to 17 years in state prison.
Harmon had been sentenced to two years in prison in September 2010 after pleading no contest to first-degree burglary. That case stemmed from another high-speed chase in a Range Rover that ended with Harmon jumping off the Santa Monica Pier.
