Murder defendant Bradley Joe Morales, 31, wants to call one of his former girlfriends as a witness at his trial next month.

The woman testified during a pre-trial conference held Wednesday in district court in Minot to determine what evidence Morales, who is representing himself, will be allowed to introduce at his trial on May 9.

Morales questioned the woman, who testified via interactive video from another state. He told the judge he wants to use the woman’s testimony to prove that he was still in a romantic relationship with the purported victim at the time of her August 2017 stabbing death.

Prosecutor Roza Larson objected and said this testimony would be hearsay. Morales can always testify to the details himself, she said.

“I don’t have to testify,” Morales said.

Larson said he can’t have it both ways and cannot use a third party at trial to establish facts using hearsay statements.

Morales was previously convicted of the murder of Sharmaine Leake, 25, the mother of his children, and sentenced to 40 years in prison. The state has claimed that they were no longer in a relationship at the time of her death, while Morales has claimed otherwise.

The State Supreme Court ruled that he must be given a new trial because Judge Doug Mattson had closed the courtroom on different occasions without first considering alternatives and had violated Morales’s right to a public trial. Morales had disagreements with several of the attorneys who had been appointed to represent him and is now representing himself with a defense attorney on standby to give him advice if he needs it. Morales had been scheduled to go to trial earlier this year but the trial had to be rescheduled after Morales tested positive for COVID-19.

During the court hearing on Wednesday, Morales was testy and complained that he has been incarcerated and does not have access to the resources he needs to prepare for the trial. He complained that “Y’all are stacking the deck against me” and this is how people are unjustly convicted.

He told Judge Mattson he wants him to order his stand-by attorney to contact Facebook and investigate which account certain Facebook messages were sent from. Judge Mattson had ruled against the introduction of certain social media messages allegedly exchanged between Leake and Morales’s former girlfriend.

Morales’s former girlfriend testified Wednesday under cross examination that the messages in question had been exchanged in October 2016, 10 months before Leake died, and the woman has never lived in North Dakota. She also testified that Morales had never struck her or acted aggressively toward her during the time they were dating, before he began dating Leake.

Morales had previously pleaded guilty to committing domestic violence against Leake and there was a burglary charge pending against him at the time of Leake’s death for allegedly breaking into her residence.

The state’s theory of the case has been that Morales chased Leake and stabbed her in the neck during an escalating domestic violence dispute. Morales has argued that Leake was stabbed accidentally as he went one way and she went another on the stairs and that he later tried to save her.

On Wednesday during the hearing, after Larson noted that he had been responsible for the death of Leake, Morales had an angry outburst and claimed Leake died as a result of the incompetence of emergency personnel.

“Dead at my hands or dead at the paramedics’ hands (because) they don’t know up here that you don’t do CPR on someone with a stab wound to the jugular?” Morales said angrily as he walked away from the defense table to consult with his stand-by attorney.

Leake was taken to the hospital after the stabbing in August 2017 but died five days later, never having regained consciousness.