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The Ohio 82 bridge was the target of five domestic terrorists, including Joshua Stafford, who is on trial in federal court in Akron.

(Plain Dealer file photo)

AKRON, Ohio -- Joshua Stafford, the last of five men accused in a failed plot to blow up a bridge on Ohio 82, appeared to struggle this morning in his first significant attempt to act as his own trial attorney.

Long pauses marked his hour-long cross-examination of FBI informant Shaquille Azir, who has testified to befriending Stafford and his anarchist friends from the Occupy Cleveland movement, then helping the FBI to derail their misguided bombing plot.

But during the cross examination, Azir did agree that Stafford was the last man to join the group of accused conspirators and did not participate in negotiations with an undercover FBI agent to buy what the men believed to be C4 plastic explosives.

Joshua Stafford

The undercover agent ultimately sold Azir and the five conspirators phony explosives, two dummy bombs equipped with red LED lights, two cell phone detonators, bullet-proof vests, tear gas canisters and gas masks.

The testimony came during the third day of Stafford's jury trial in U.S. District Court.

The 23-year-old Cleveland resident is accused of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, and maliciously attempting to destroy the Ohio 82 bridge with a weapon of mass destruction. If convicted, he could face life in prison.

His four co-defendants, all members of the Occupy Cleveland movement, previously pleaded guilty to charges related to the bombing plot and are in prison.

Stafford is being assisted by federal public defender Timothy Ivey, who is serving as "advisory counsel."

He did not follow through on his threat from Tuesday to no show up at the trial today. U.S. District Judge David Dowd Jr. had told him the trial would continue without him.