WEST PALM BEACH — The crusading Coral Gables attorney who took up Nathaniel Brazill's case has been fired by the teen.

Attorney Jack Thompson said Tuesday that Brazill, the Lake Worth Middle School student who shot and killed teacher Barry Grunow in 2000, fired him, saying he wanted to be his own lawyer.

"He's a tough guy," Thompson said. "I wish him well."

Thompson — notorious for battling obscenity, profanity and the effects of violent video games on children — had met with Brazill and talked about defenses, including video games. Thompson said Brazill and his mother wanted him off the case, not liking what he might reveal in court.

"It broke my heart," Thompson said.

Brazill, now 17, is imprisoned at Indian River Correctional Institution and has worked in the prison's law library. For now, he will represent himself in post-conviction requests to reduce his 28-year sentence, said his former defense attorney, Robert Udell.

Udell said he learned from Brazill more than a month ago that he had fired Thompson.

Udell said he told Brazill that it was a mistake.

Now Udell will file a request with the court to appoint a lawyer to defend Brazill further. Udell himself cannot do it because he represented Brazill at trial.

Last month, the Florida Supreme Court refused to even review Brazill's case.

So it's back to the trial court judge to try to get a reduction in his sentence, either by arguing that there's new information or evidence or that Udell did not represent him well.

"The last I heard, he didn't want to do that," Udell said of the latter argument. "I've got to go visit him and say, 'Son, you gotta do that.' "

Brazill thinks 15 years would be a fairer sentence, Udell said.

Both he and Thompson agree that Brazill's representing himself in court is a bad idea.

"Now he has a fool for a client," Thompson said.