Things really began to heat up this week in a Florida courtroom when a defense attorney’s pants caught on fire, during an arson trial.
Stephen Gutierrez is a Miami lawyer who was defending a client accused of lighting his own car on fire. Gutierrez was arguing that his client’s car spontaneously combusted, when Gutierrez’s pants did the same thing.
Local news says Gutierrez was fumbling around in his pocket right before he was set to address the jury when smoke began coming out of his pants. Gutierrez rushed out of the courtroom and the jurors were escorted out as well, for their own safety. Gutierrez returned quickly with a singed pocket, claiming it was an e-cigarette battery gone haywire and not a staged defense gone wrong.
“It was surreal” said one person in the courtroom. Another told the Miami Herald that “a lot of people could have been hurt”, but thankfully no one was.
Gutierrez’s client, 48-year-old Claudy Charles, was ultimately found guilty of second-degree arson. It is also possible that in the coming days Gutierrez could be held in contempt of court. For now though, the only outcome from the incident are a burnt pocket, a lost trial, and quite possibly the record for best “Florida Man” story out there.
