The ex-con bouncer accused of killing grad student Imette St. Guillen lost an appeal yesterday to be represented by a high-profile Brooklyn lawyer and author, Joyce David – whose book he found in the jailhouse library.
“Ms. David has expressed a genuine interest in my particular case,” accused killer Darryl Littlejohn wrote to Judge Cheryl Chambers from Rikers Island last month.
“I have a tremendous amount of confidence in her abilities to represent my best interests in this high-profile and extremely complicated case,” he wrote.
But Judge Chambers rejected his request on Wednesday, and said, “He does not have the right to choose a specific counsel.”
David is the author of “What You Should Know If You’re Accused of a Crime,” which, for obvious reasons, is a popular read on Rikers.
“I believe he’d seen my book in the library,” David told The Post. “So he wrote to me and I went to visit him.”
She described him as “soft-spoken” and “articulate” and she said she’d be willing to take the case if the judge appointed her – but she warned him, “It’s unlikely the judge would appoint me just because he wanted.”
Littlejohn’s previous lawyer, Kevin O’Donnell, stepped down.