Robert Amos wants the state of Colorado to kill him. He is very clear about this. So clear, in fact, that he had a hard time understanding why Judge Charles Barton kept talking about his rights as an accused murderer.

"Why does it have to be so difficult?" Amos asked during a preliminary hearing Monday. "It's quite simple. I am trying to do the right thing."

Amos is accused of strangling 24-year-old Alyssa Heberton- Morimoto, a graduate student at the University of Colorado at Denver, in June while she was doing working for the Colorado Geological Survey in San Isabel National Forest.

The district attorney's office said it intended to seek life in prison for Amos, which angered the defendant. He insisted that death was the proper punishment and threatened to kill a police officer to ensure his wish would be carried out.

The hearing was supposed to be the point where the district attorney's office lays out its evidence and reasons why there should be a trial.

Instead, prosecutor Molly Chilson barely spoke during the hour court was in session. And it was the 44-year-old Amos who talked at length - answering question after question from Barton about why he dismissed his public defender and why he wanted to defend himself and if he was clear that he had a right to a fair trial.

Amos, dressed in a red jail jumpsuit and handcuffed, often sighed and grew agitated when he thought the proceedings went on too long.

He said he just wanted to plead guilty in the death of Heberton-Morimoto, who came upon Amos in the forest.

And, he said, "I'm more than disappointed," when the prosecutor said the DA's office would be seeking a life sentence.

Amos told the judge he remembered when he was 14, two men shot his uncle to death and they got life sentences for the deed. He said it made him angry and that he's been a staunch defender of capital punishment ever since.

Amos said he believed he deserves the death penalty in this case now.

He seemed surprised that the judge didn't want to take him at his word.

"I am trying to do the right thing - one last thing," Amos said. "And I can't even get support on that. And I think that's a bunch of crap."

He also said by not giving him the death penalty, the court was giving him "a license to kill." Convicted in 1981 for killing a 69- year-old man in Kansas City while under the name Dennis Lee Cook, Amos served just under 20 years of a possible life sentence. Amos also was convicted of assault while locked up in Colorado and was paroled in 2001.

He argued the entire process was wasting everyone's time and money. And he blasted the justice system for valuing the lives of those serving in the justice system more than the lives of ordinary citizens. He said that if the system doesn't execute him, it would not be valuing the life of Heberton-Morimoto.

Barton set Amos' next court date for Oct. 5 when he can enter his plea officially.

monterod@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5236