Murder defendant Keith Mackowiak, standing before Circuit Court Judge H. Chris Ryan Jr. during a status hearing Friday, complained bitterly about his own lawyers and the state's attorney as well as his ongoing treatment as a prisoner in La Salle County Jail.

Mackowiak, facing a possible death sentence for the alleged murder of an elderly Seneca couple in 2007, told Ryan directly, "We need to readdress my mental fitness to stand trial."

He claimed that prosecutors and county jail officials have been "inflicting torture and cruel and unusual punishment" by keeping him in segregation and isolation during most of his two and a half years of being in custody.

A visible frustrated Mackowiak said county authorities were holding him in isolation in a designed attempt to affect his judgment. He asked the judge to re-explore his psychological fitness because he insisted constant segregation from others is making him lose the mental capacity for any participation in his own defense.

"And, combined with the medications I'm on, it is affecting my judgment," he said.

A jury found Mackowiak mentally fit to stand trial in January — as did prosecution psychologist John Murray, who, at the time described Mackowiak, in part, as manipulative, malingering and impulsive.

A month earlier, in December 2008, Ryan ruled all of Mackowiak's medication information had to be shared by both the prosecution and the defense. Friday, the judge told all parties to keep up to date on the defendant's prescription intake.

Minutes before the hearing began, the stillness of the courtroom was broken by indecipherable shouts from a back room before Public Defender Tim Cappellini and Assistant Public Defender Jim Reilly along with Mackowiak made their appearance together.

The 42-year-old Mackowiak has been at odds with his attorney Cappellini for more than a year and Ryan has listened patiently to all of the defendant's complaints about counsel on several occasions.

Ignoring the backroom commotion, Ryan did agree with Mackowiak, however, when the defendant criticized the small, unclear photos of potential trial evidence provided to him by prosecutors. The judge instructed State's Attorney Brian Towne to get a better camera and provide a better quality of photographs to the defendant.

Recently Cappellini and Reilly filed a motion to have Ryan order the state's attorney's office to permit the defense to examine all relevant physical evidence.

Such evidence that has been previously mentioned includes a glass, shirt, receipts, tow truck invoice and garbage taken from an Ottawa home, as well as bloodstained gloves, wine bottle, blue jeans and hammer.

In Friday's proceedings, the prisoner also charged both Towne and Cappellini were not taking their roles seriously in the case and that they lack respect for the situation. "It's like they're at a golf course, laughing and joking (together)."

His voice rising, Mackowiak said, "It (their conduct) is despicable!"

Listening to the complaints, his face with little expression, Ryan quickly moved the hearing along with little comment other than saying Cappellini and Towne have done "nothing improper." The judge told Mackowiak to put all concerns on paper for the court's review.

The defense team is still expected to file a change of venue motion for the case in the near future. Local media coverage will most likely be the focus for that motion.

Mackowiak is charged with killing Katherine and Aloysius Twardowski, ages 87 and 84 respectively, in their rural Seneca home July 11, 2007.

The next hearing is set for Dec. 4.