A state judge agreed Monday to allow former Delaware death row inmate Isaiah McCoy to represent himself in court against a felony robbery charge.

Circuit Judge Todd Eddins also told McCoy that he already was planning to appoint a licensed lawyer to assist him, after McCoy asked for a standby counsel.

Eddins said he scheduled Monday’s hearing to ask McCoy about representing himself after learning McCoy expressed a desire to do so at his arraignment Thursday.

McCoy, 32, and Joshua Pulliam, 33, are accused of beating and injuring a 40-year-old man in Waikiki on Sept. 3 to steal the man’s $20,000 wristwatch. They are scheduled to stand trial for second- degree robbery in front of Eddins in November. If found guilty, they each face maximum 10-year prison terms.

Eddins told McCoy that he has a constitutional right to be his own attorney but urged him repeatedly to let an experienced, licensed lawyer represent him.

“I know you have sort of empirical or on-the-job training or experience representing yourself. (But) I still believe that the task of representing yourself is extremely difficult,” Eddins said.

McCoy told Eddins he is confident in his ability and decision to represent himself.

“I don’t want to say that I take this case lightly, whatsoever. But if a prosecutor can actually prove a case against me, your honor, I would be more than willing to do that 10 years. I’m a young man, and I would still have a whole lot of life ahead of me,” he said.

McCoy said he already was looking for a lawyer to represent him after posting $20,000 bail Sept. 4. Honolulu police rearrested him the following day after an Oahu grand jury indicted him and Pulliam, and Circuit Judge Shirley Kawamura increased their bail to $100,000 each.

He said he might change his mind about representing himself if he gets released and is able to resume his search for a private lawyer. McCoy said he does not want to be represented by a public defender.

McCoy fired his public defender on the eve of a trial and represented himself in front of a Delaware state jury that found him guilty of a drug-related murder. A judge later sentenced him to death. He said volunteer lawyers from the Innocence Project got the conviction overturned and got him acquitted on retrial.

Following his release in January 2017, McCoy moved to Hawaii where a federal grand jury indicted him on sex trafficking charges. McCoy represented himself against the charges, and in the middle of trial, prosecutors were forced to drop the case after they learned the case agent withheld evidence and lied.