FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Former Yankee Jim Leyritz — on trial for allegedly killing a woman in a drunken Florida car wreck — broke down in court yesterday, bawling so hard that the judge was forced to clear the jury from the room.
Leyritz, usually as stoic in court as he was in the batter’s box, wiped his eyes and hid his face as Jill Hirsch, a Fort Lauderdale traffic homicide investigator, testified.
His sobs got louder as she described evidence collected to make the case that he killed Fredia Ann Veitch on Dec. 29, 2007, while boozed up behind the wheel of his speeding SUV.
When Leyritz’s shoulders shook and he buried his head in his hands, Judge Marc Gold ordered the jury out of the courtroom.
Leyritz’s attorney, David Bogenschutz, asked that the ballplayer be excused. Gold allowed Leyritz to stand behind a door near the judge’s chambers, but the sobbing could still be heard in the courtroom. After several minutes, Leyritz returned and testimony resumed.
“I think it just started to get to him,” Bogenschutz said after the day’s session. “The fact that he has been here two to three years under this pressure and it’s coming down to this testimony, nobody can put up with that kind of pressure forever. He just had an emotional moment.”