[NormsRevenge]

The judge said he felt sorry for Cottrell, a doctoral candidate in the physics department at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

--snip--

Klausner in January denied Cottrell's bid for a new trial. Cottrell had claimed the court improperly barred his attorneys from presenting evidence that he suffered from Asperger's syndrome, a type of autism that he claimed made it difficult for him to understand the intentions of the alleged accomplices.