MARTINEZ, Calif. — Courtroom bickering and another lost juror seem to be eclipsing the focus on evidence presented at Susan Polk's murder trial.

A female alternate juror was dismissed Thursday morning after she requested a private meeting with the judge and both parties. Neither side would discuss the cause for her dismissal except to say that it was because of the woman's personal reasons, an unexpected event in her life, and was not related to the case in any way.

Polk is down to just two alternates now, having lost a male alternate early in the case, also for reasons that were not made public.

The 48-year-old California housewife is representing herself against charges that she stabbed her 70-year-old psychologist husband, Felix Polk, to death with a paring knife almost four years ago. She says she acted in self-defense and suffered from years of abuse at her husband's hands.

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The prosecution — and two of Polk's three sons — say she killed Felix Polk willfully, and if she suffered from anything, it was delusions of persecution.

Several jurors smiled and at least two sitting in the front row whispered to each another Thursday morning during more of Polk's now-infamous courtroom antics.

"Please don't talk to each other," Judge Laurel Brady admonished the panel.

Typically, it has been Polk who is on the receiving end of the judge's admonishments. Brady has already twice threatened to revoke Polk's ability to act as her own attorney if she continued to accuse the prosecutor of misconduct in front of jurors.

The judge let out a heavy sigh, briefly resting her head in her hands during a sidebar Thursday, when Polk continued to interrupt, argue, demand admonishments be made to the gallery for audible "snickering," and lodge another complaint "for the record" of prosecutorial misconduct.

Polk's agitation began with the Elmo — a courtroom projection device used to show photos and objects on a screen (abbreviated from "electronic monitor").

The Elmo, Polk announced during witness testimony, was obstructing her view of the jurors' faces.

"I want a sidebar," Polk demanded when the prosecutor said he did not want to move the machine, and noted that he had allowed Polk to use the Elmo for her own exhibits, yet this was the first she'd complained of its position.

The judge ordered both parties to wait until the next break. But that break came sooner than expected.

"Maybe this would be a good time for a break?" Polk asked a few minutes later, when she could not find the documents she needed to cross-examination the witness.

During the short recess, she had the judge sit in her chair at the defense table, to see for herself the view that was obscured by the Elmo's three thin magnifying arms that rise up from a flat, lit platform.

The judge didn't see what Polk saw. The Elmo could stay, she ruled — at first.

"I can't see Juror No. 10's face," Polk said, enumerating additional jurors whose expressions were obstructed by the equipment. This, she said, hindered her ability to "make sure there's not any communication between the jurors," which, as she noted, "could be grounds for a mistrial."

"She's just being obstreperous and obstructionist," Assistant District Attorney Paul Sequeira argued, "for the record."

"Prosecutorial misconduct," Polk returned, "for the record."

The Elmo, the judge finally decided, would be moved at lunch to accommodate Polk's view of the jurors' faces. But not now, she said, the jury was waiting.

'Crying inside'

Deputy Sheriff Melvin Chamblee testified that Polk's husband called 911 seven days before he was killed, and said he had been threatened by his wife. Chamblee also took snapshots at the crime scene and kept a log of who entered the area.

Deputy Sheriff Shannon Kelly said he put Polk in the back of his patrol car on Oct. 14, 2002, the night Polk's son Gabriel found his father's bloody body and called 911 to say his mother killed his father.

Polk was "unemotional," Kelly said, as she denied any knowledge of her husband's death.

"I didn't do anything," Polk said, according to Kelly.

"Are you sure it's my husband? Did my son identify the body? Because his car isn't here," Polk also asked, according to Kelly.

Polk later admitted she stabbed her husband, but said it was during a life-or-death struggle for the knife.

"Do you think if you had someone who was under arrest, and was accused of murder, sitting in the backseat of your car crying, and you had the music on, that you could hear them crying?" Polk asked.

"I could, depending on how loud the music was," Kelly said.

"Have you ever heard the expression 'crying inside'?" Polk said.

"No," Kelly said.

Polk believes police tainted the crime scene by pouring water on her dead husband's head to make the dried blood appear wet, and did shoddy investigative work, including walking around the area with no protective booties.

Polk showed Chamblee photos of bloody footprints — shoe prints she believes depict two right feet. Chamblee said he couldn't be sure.

"What size shoe do you use?" Sequeira asked Chamblee on re-direct examination.

"Size 11," Chamblee said.

"And that's men's?" the prosecutor continued, perhaps suggesting the prints could have been from women's shoes.

"Yes, men's," Chamblee said.

"And now, not that there's anything wrong with it, but do you ever wear women's shoes?" Sequeira continued.

The jury, the gallery, even the judge laughed. Susan evinced a slight grin.

"Not at work," Chamblee said.

Motion for a mistrial

Another witness, a therapist intern and former student of Felix Polk, was called and then immediately released.

During a sidebar, Polk said the therapist was not on her witness list or in discovery documents provided by the prosecution.

The jury was sent home.

Polk then moved for "a mistrial with prejudice," and "removal of the prosecutor."

She also accused her previous attorney, Daniel Horowitz — whose wife was murdered at her first trial causing a mistrial — of not turning over all the files in her case.

Horowitz, she said in a rambling dialogue, was "not a trustworthy source" as to what has been turned over by the prosecution and what has not.

"He has a lot of resentment and animosity toward me, your honor," Polk said, adding that it was because she had come forward as a witness for the defense of Scott Dyleski, the teen now charged in the murder of Horowitz's wife.

The issue of the mysterious therapist witness — and other disputed discovery matters — will be handled on Friday, the judge said.

The obtrusive Elmo, by day's end, was still not in a position that suited the defendant's view.

Polk said she would have her assistant take a photo of the jury box from Polk's seat, "for purposes of appeal."

Trial resumes Friday.