A prospective juror jailed Tuesday for disrupting jury selection was released Wednesday after he apologized. He had been part of a pool of jurors being considered for a misdemeanor assault trial.

Circuit Judge Edward Kubo declared a mistrial and ordered the prospective juror taken into custody Tuesday for contempt for statements attributed to the man made outside the courtroom. The man did not admit to yelling or saying loudly, “He is guilty,” but apologized for his actions.

“I wasn’t thinking right,” the man said.

His lawyer told Kubo the man was trying to avoid getting selected for trial because he had learned two days earlier that his father was diagnosed with prostate cancer and that his wife was getting checked Tuesday to see if she has cancer.

Kubo lectured the man on a defendant’s right to a fair trial and told him that not only his fellow prospective jurors but also the sitting jurors in an ongoing attempted murder trial could have heard and been affected by what he said.