RICHMOND — He’s a life advice author with an edge, promising readers that the “quality of your life will improve” if you carry an illegal gun, take drugs and stop paying taxes.
But lately, the career of local author Nicolas Adjuder, 49, has hit a bit of a snag due to some legal troubles. Since early 2018, Adjuder has faced allegations that he murdered his brother during an argument on Christmas Eve. He has spent the last seven-and-a-half years in jail, unable to make $2 million bail.
But Adjuder sees a pathway to freedom, though it involves convincing a jury that one of his brother’s two supposed gunshot wounds was actually the result of a catheter installed by an incompetent medical professional, and that the entire justice system has conspired to cover it up. Thus far he has been unable to even convince his attorney, who delivered an opening statement Tuesday that defied his client’s wishes, then put Adjuder on the stand to make his case.
“Mr. Adjuder is unwell,” defense attorney Matthew Fregi told jurors Tuesday, as his client lowered his head to a courtroom desk a few feet away, then rested it there without moving. “What you will learn of Nicolas Adjuder is that he has no insight, no self-awareness and can’t tell how he’s coming off to others.”
Fregi’s planned defense will involve arguing that Adjuder believed his brother, Christopher Thomas — whose last name has also been listed as Adjuder in public records — was a threat to him. The two traded slaps and deeply personal insults before Adjuder allegedly retrieved a gun and shot his brother from a short distance away. Adjuder freely admits that he “shot at” Thomas but claims the fatal gunshot actually missed and that the cops and Contra Costa prosecutors planted evidence and framed up a case against him.
On the witness stand Tuesday afternoon, Adjuder gave jurors a profanity-laced, blow-by-blow recap of that fatal Christmas Eve of 2017. The two brothers lived together in San Pablo but quarreled often. Adjuder said this was just a normal part of how family members interact, recounting how another family member had slapped him when he stole a copy of Prince’s album Purple Rain in 1985.
During cross-examination, Adjuder didn’t attempt to hide his disdain for prosecutor Jay Melaas, and was admonished by the judge for calling Melaas a “pimp” in one answer.
“I laugh at you,” Adjuder told Melaas in response to a question about the brothers’ relationship. To another, he said, “This is pathetic. You should be ashamed of yourself.”
Melaas asked Adjuder if it was true that Adjuder was mad at Thomas that day for inviting family over to Christmas without asking Adjuder first, implying that Adjuder didn’t enjoy having family gatherings at the home.
“If that were the case, every monk in a monastery should be a psychopathic killer because they don’t have family coming either,” Adjuder replied. When Melaas asked during several of Adjuder’s longer answers if he was finished, Adjuder admonished him for his inept social skills and said he’d start tugging on his ear to signal when he was through talking, for the prosecutor’s benefit.
Adjuder’s writing takes a similarly frank tone. The description for his book “Please Break the Law” — published in 2010 and available for $69.99 on Amazon — encourages readers to “flout the law” and not worry about getting caught.
“You can have this freedom by carrying an unregistered gun illegally; take illegal drugs and stop paying taxes on any business venture that you start,” Adjuder writes. “If you take these measures, the quality of your life will improve since you will be taking responsibility for your life and stop using the law as an excuse on why you suffer.”
In addition to this 191-page life advice book, Adjuder authored “The Poor Are Not Trying.net” and “Why Richmond California Has Failed.”
The trial is expected to wrap up in coming days. Prosecutors have described Adjuder as a cold-blooded executioner with annoying habits, who killed one of the only people who was willing to indulge his eccentricities. Adding to the tragedy, the brothers’ mom was in the home at the time, and Thomas staggered to her after being shot. He was hospitalized for two weeks, then died from his wounds, leading to the murder charge against Adjuder.
During his cross-examination, Adjuder acknowledged in a prior court hearing he made a “100 percent serious” threat to murder Fregi, and that he slapped his last attorney, Howard Williams, but said that was only to get him off the case. This news might not be too welcomed for Fregi, who last year was stabbed with a pen by a different client in a murder case, then proceeded to brush off the incident as “no big deal” before his multiple wounds had even healed.
Fregi stayed on that case after being stabbed, hoping to dissuade others from using violence to obtain a new court-appointed lawyer. Now once again in court with an irate client and an uphill battle, Fregi said told jurors he hopes they will “see things for what they truly are” and acquit Adjuder of murder.
“Nicolas made a beeline to the front door,” just before the shooting, Fregi said. But as his writing suggests, it was his habit to never leave the home without his trusty pistol. When he saw a sign that Thomas was readying to come at him with a knife, he “panicked” and fired, Fregi said.
“(Adjuder) was headed to the exit,” said Fregi.