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FORT PIERCE, Fla. — A federal trial is scheduled to begin Monday for a man charged with trying to assassinate Donald Trump as he played golf in Florida in September 2024.

Jury selection is expected to take three days, with attorneys questioning three sets of 60 prospective jurors. They’re trying to find 12 jurors and four alternates. Opening statements are scheduled to begin Thursday, and prosecutors will begin their case immediately after that. The court has blocked off four weeks for the trial, but attorneys are expecting they’ll need less time.

Here’s what to know about the case:

Defendant to represent himself

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon signed off in July on Ryan Routh’s request to represent himself during his trial, but said court-appointed attorneys need to remain as standby counsel.

The judge told Routh she believes it’s a bad idea for him to represent himself, but he wouldn’t be dissuaded. Routh, who has described the extent of his education as two years of college after earning his GED certificate, told Cannon that he understood the potential challenges and would be ready.

Cannon confirmed during a recent hearing that Routh would be dressed in professional business attire for the trial. She also explained to Routh that he would be allowed to use a podium while speaking to the jury or questioning witnesses, but he would not have free rein of the courtroom.

“If you make any sudden movements, marshals will take decisive and quick action to respond,” Cannon said.

Self-styled mercenary leader

The 59-year-old Routh was a North Carolina construction worker who in recent years had moved to Hawaii. A self-styled mercenary leader, Routh spoke out to anyone who would listen about his dangerous, sometimes violent plans to insert himself into conflicts around the world, witnesses have told the Associated Press.

In the early days of the war in Ukraine, Routh tried to recruit soldiers from Afghanistan, Moldova and Taiwan to fight the Russians. In his native Greensboro, N.C., he had a 2002 arrest for eluding a traffic stop and barricading himself from officers with a fully automatic machine gun and a “weapon of mass destruction,” which turned out to be an explosive with a 10-inch-long fuse.

In 2010, police searched a warehouse Routh owned and found more than 100 stolen items, including power tools, building supplies, kayaks and spa tubs. In both felony cases, judges gave Routh either probation or a suspended sentence.

Attempted assassination charge

Authorities said Routh tried to assassinate Trump, then the Republican nominee for president, while Trump played golf at his club in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Routh is facing five felony counts in federal court in Fort Pierce. They include attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, possessing a firearm to carry out a violent crime, assaulting a federal officer, being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.

In addition to the federal charges, Routh also has pleaded not guilty to state charges of terrorism and attempted murder.

Same judge presided over Trump case

Cannon is the same judge who presided over another high-profile case involving Trump — the classified documents case against him.

Last year, Cannon, who was nominated to the bench by Trump during his first term, sided with Trump’s lawyers who said the special counsel who filed the charges was illegally appointed by the U.S. Justice Department.

Cannon’s ruling halted a criminal case that, at the time it was filed, was widely regarded as the most perilous of all the legal threats the president faced before he returned to office in January. The felony case was being appealed when Trump was elected in November, after which that and other criminal indictments against him were dismissed, following a Justice Department policy not to charge a sitting president.

No signs of shots fired

Trump was uninjured, and there’s no evidence that Routh fired his weapon at the golf course. U.S. Secret Service agents stationed a few holes up from where Trump was playing golf noticed the muzzle of an AK-style rifle sticking through the shrubbery that lines the course, roughly 400 yards away. An agent fired, and the gunman dropped the rifle and fled in an SUV, leaving the firearm behind along with two backpacks, a scope used for aiming and a GoPro camera. He was later stopped by law enforcement in a neighboring county.

That alleged assassination attempt took place nine weeks after Trump survived another attempt on his life, in Pennsylvania, when a gunman’s bullet grazed the candidate’s ear during a rally.

Fischer writes for the Associated Press.

Tory Lanez’s attempt to submit new evidence and challenge his 2022 felony conviction has collapsed.

Lanez, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, brought forward two petitions in his case, which concerns the 2020 shooting of hip-hop artist Megan Thee Stallion. According to Complex, one involved Peterson’s driver not testifying and the other sought to bring forward a new statement from a security guard for Kelsey Harris, the victim’s former best friend. Both were subsequently denied Tuesday by the California Court of Appeals.

Peterson’s legal team alleged at a press conference in May that Bradley Jennings, who was working as a bodyguard and driver for Harris, approached them and said he had witnessed a conversation in which Harris said “she had the gun, she fired it three times, Mr. Peterson grabbed her arm and knocked it down, and the gun fired two more times.”

An attorney for Lanez added, “In essence, Mr. Peterson never shot anybody.”

Megan Thee Stallion’s team was quick to respond, issuing a statement the next day.

“Tory Lanez was tried and convicted by a jury of his peers and his case was properly adjudicated through the court system,” they wrote, per XXL Magazine. “This is not a political matter — this is a case of a violent assault that was resolved in the court of law.”

Peterson is serving a 10-year sentence after being convicted of assault with a firearm, possession of a concealed firearm and negligent discharge of a gun. He has an active main appeal set for oral argument Aug. 18.

This is not the first time the 30-year-old rapper has seen his efforts to revive the case shot down. In May 2023, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge denied his motion for a new trial.

Judge David Herriford rejected arguments from Peterson’s defense team, which claimed that evidence had been wrongly submitted in the December 2022 trial he presided over. “I could be your son. I could be your brother,” the rapper pleaded, but to no avail.

Three months later, in August 2023, he received his 10-year sentence.

A warrant has been issued for the arrest of former NFL superstar Antonio Brown stemming from an altercation outside a celebrity kickboxing event last month in Miami.

Brown is charged with the first-degree felony of attempted second-degree murder with a firearm. A judge from the 11th Judicial Circuit in Miami-Dade County signed the warrant Wednesday.

The warrant, which has been viewed by The Times, states that once Brown is arrested, he will be held on a $10,000 bond before being released and under house arrest before a trial.

Just before midnight on May 16, the warrant states, Miami police were dispatched to a location on NE 67th St. in the Little Haiti neighborhood in response to a report of gunshots being fired in the area.

Brown had already been detained by off-duty Florida Highway Patrol officers serving as security for the amateur boxing event held in the area. One of those officers stated that “several patrons from the event identified Mr. Brown as the shooter and informed him that Mr. Brown was armed,” the warrant states.

After being patted down and deemed to be unarmed at that point, Brown was released “due to the absence of identified victims at the time.”

A Miami police review of surveillance camera footage revealed that an altercation between Brown and another man took place before the shooting. The footage showed Brown striking the man with a closed fist, and a fight that involved additional individuals ensued, the warrant states.

Security broke up the fight, according to the warrant, but Brown “appears to retrieve a black firearm from the right hip area” of one of the security staff members and ran with the gun out of the parking area in the direction that the man he was fighting with had gone.

The warrant states that “cell phone video obtained from social media” shows Brown advancing toward the other man with the gun in hand and captures “two shots which occur as Mr. Brown is within several feet” of the other man, who can be seen “ducking after the first shot is heard.”

In a May 21 interview with a police detective, the alleged victim identified Brown in the surveillance video and said they had known each other since 2022, the warrant states. He also indicated he possibly had been grazed in the neck by one of the bullets, was in fear for his life during the incident and went to a hospital afterward to treat his injuries.

Brown appeared to address the alleged incident in a May 17 post on X.

“I was jumped by multiple individuals who tried to steal my jewelry and cause physical harm to me,” Brown wrote. “Contrary to some video circulating, Police temporarily detained me until they received my side of the story and then released me. I WENT HOME THAT NIGHT AND WAS NOT ARRESTED. I will be talking to my legal council and attorneys on pressing charges on the individuals that jumped me.”

Brown posted on X several times on Friday, with none of those posts mentioning the arrest warrant. One seemed to indicate he’s not in the U.S. at the moment — it features a video of a grinning Brown riding a bike with the hashtag #lovefromthemiddleeast.

A seven-time Pro Bowl receiver, Brown played nine of his 12 NFL seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers and won a Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers following the 2020 season. He made a bizarre, shirtless exit from the field during a regular-season game Jan. 2, 2022, and has not played since.

He has a history of legal troubles. In 2019, Brown was sued by a former trainer who said he sexually assaulted her multiple times. Brown denied the allegations. The lawsuit was settled out of court in 2021.

In 2020, Brown pleaded no contest to burglary and battery charges connected to an altercation with a moving company. He was ordered to serve two years of probation and 100 hours of community service, attend an anger management program and undergo psychological and psychiatric evaluation.

Brown was suspended for eight games in 2020 for multiple violations of the NFL’s personal conduct policy.

Also, in October 2023, the former star wide receiver was arrested for failing to pay child support.

Hannah Gutierrez, the weapons handler in the ill-fated Alec Baldwin western movie “Rust,” has been released from prison after serving 14 months for her conviction last year of involuntary manslaughter.

Gutierrez was released Friday from a New Mexico women’s prison after completing her sentence in the accidental shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in October 2021.

Gutierrez was one of three people charged in Hutchins’ death on the movie set south of Santa Fe, N.M., but the only one who received a felony conviction. A jury found her guilty of involuntary manslaughter in Hutchins’ death following a dramatic two-week trial last year in Santa Fe.

New Mexico prosecutors faulted the Arizona woman for reckless handling of firearms and ammunition in violation of gun safety rules.

The special prosecutor also argued that Gutierrez had unwittingly brought the live bullets with her to the popular western film location, Bonanza Creek Ranch, and mingled them with inert “dummy” bullets used on film sets.

Gutierrez has denied that allegation. There was no conclusive evidence presented about the origins of the live bullets.

Actor Alec Baldwin during his 2024 trial in Santa Fe for his role in the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

(Ramsay de Give / Associated Press)

Baldwin, who pointed the gun at Hutchins during a rehearsal, also was charged. He pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter for the shooting that killed the 42-year-old cinematographer, a rising star in the industry, and wounded the film’s director, Joel Souza.

The New Mexico judge overseeing the “Rust” criminal prosecutions, New Mexico 1st Judicial District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer, dismissed the charge against Baldwin three days into his high-profile trial last July.

Marlowe Sommer found the prosecutor and Santa Fe County sheriff’s deputies had concealed evidence from Baldwin’s legal team, which the judge said prejudiced the case against Baldwin. At the time, the actor-producer’s team was exploring whether prosecutors and sheriff’s deputies botched the investigation into how the bullets made their way onto the set.

Assistant director David Halls was also charged in the shooting.

Halls pleaded no contest to negligent use of a deadly weapon and received a suspended six-month sentence, which ended in October 2023. Halls, who has since retired from the industry, agreed to pay a $500 fine, participate in a firearms safety class, refrain from taking drugs or alcohol and complete 24 hours of community service.

Gutierrez had received the maximum sentence for her role.

She was released on parole. She also is being supervised under terms of probation after pleading guilty to a separate charge of unlawfully carrying a gun into a Santa Fe bar that prohibited firearms a few days before the fatal shooting, according to the Associated Press.

Terms of her parole include mental health assessments and a ban on firearms possession.

Gutierrez, through her attorney, declined an interview request Sunday.

“When I took on ‘Rust,’ I was young and I was naive but I took my job as seriously as I knew how to,” Gutierrez told the judge during her April 2024 sentencing hearing.

Marlowe Sommer, who also presided over the armorer’s case, gave Gutierrez the maximum sentence, saying: “You were the armorer, the one that stood between a safe weapon and a weapon that could kill someone. .. You alone turned a safe weapon into a lethal weapon.”

With Gutierrez’s release, the criminal phase of the “Rust” saga has concluded.

Several civil lawsuits against Baldwin and the producers, including from Hutchins’ family members, remain unresolved.

Baldwin and other actors and crew members finished filming in Montana, 18 months after the fatal shooting in New Mexico. The movie was finally released in the U.S. this month on just a handful of screens.

The October 2021 shooting shined a harsh light on film set safety, particularly on low-budget productions.

“Rust” was racked with problems, including allegations of safety rules and hiring inexperienced crew members such as Gutierrez. “Rust” was just her second job as head armorer. She also was tasked with the job of prop assistant.

Hours before the fatal shooting, “Rust” camera crew members had walked off the job to protest safety concerns and a lack of housing near the film’s set. Crew members complained about earlier accidental gun discharges.

Gutierrez is the stepdaughter of well-known Hollywood armorer Thell Reed.

Los Angeles County prosecutors filed criminal charges Tuesday against Jillian Lauren Shriner, a bestselling author who is married to Weezer bassist Scott Shriner, following an incident last month where she was wounded by police after allegedly shooting at them from her backyard.

The author, who publishes under the last name Lauren, appeared in a downtown Los Angeles courthouse, pleading not guilty to felony charges for willful discharge of a firearm in a gross negligent manner and assault of a person with a semiautomatic firearm. Prosecutors are also seeking a firearms sentencing enhancement. She faces up to 19 years in state prison if convicted on counts.

Lauren, 51, sported an all-white suit as she stood before the judge to enter her plea. She and her lawyers, Hilary Potashner and Kim Wilkinson, declined to comment after the hearing.

Lauren was initially booked April 9 on suspicion of attempted murder after a bewildering encounter with the LAPD. That afternoon, officers were searching for three hit-and-run suspects following a crash on the 134 Freeway. According to 911 calls from the area, the suspects were attempting to hide in neighborhood backyards around Eagle Rock.

The pursuit led officers to Lauren’s property, where a confrontation ensued as she stood in her backyard armed with a handgun.

Police body cameras and home surveillance videos appeared to show Lauren raising her gun and pointing it at a fence where officers had taken cover. Police said she refused their commands to drop the weapon and fired at them. The police said they shot back, hitting Lauren in the arm.

She fled back into her home, where she remained for about an hour before she was hospitalized and later taken into custody by the Highway Patrol.

There are some indications Lauren may have been unable to hear the officers due to a police helicopter hovering above the scene, possibly mistaking them for the hit-and-run suspects. In a video released by the LAPD, a neighbor could be heard telling a 911 dispatcher Lauren was confused about what happened: “There were three men, and one of them shot her, and the cops are looking for him right now … They have their guns out.”

The New Jersey native has been named a New York Times Bestselling Author for her books, “Everything You Ever Wanted” and “Some Girls: My Life in a Harem” where she recounts her encounters with Prince Jefri Bolkiah of Brunei. Most recently, she published “Behold the Monster: Facing America’s Most Prolific Serial Killer,” a look inside the mind of serial killer Samuel Little. She and Shriner have been married since 2005 and they have two sons together.

Lauren’s preliminary hearing to determine whether the cases against her will move forward is scheduled for June 18.