USA TODAY International Edition
Fate of gunman’s widow in jury’s hands
At issue: Whether she was willing accomplice in Pulse nightclub attack
A jury will continue deliberating Thursday on whether the widow of the Pulse nightclub gunman helped in the planning of the mass shooting, or was just an innocent bystander.
The jury in Orlando spent several hours Wednesday examining aspects of the weeks-long trial but did not come to a conclusion on Noor Salman’s fate.
Salman, 31, is charged with providing material support to the Islamic State, a foreign terror organization, and with obstructing justice. She could face life in prison if convicted.
In closing arguments, two very different women were described.
Salman was called a liar and the person who green lit Omar Mateen for his June 2016 rampage by prosecutors. She was then described by her defense attorneys as a simple woman who was living with an abusive husband, who lived a double life.
“It’s in the jury’s hands,” Al Salman, the defendant’s uncle, told WKMG-TV after deliberations began. “They are intelligent. They are smart. They are paying attention. So we have faith in the jury.”
In closing arguments, prosecutors said the rampage had barely ended when Salman began telling lies to investigators. And she still hasn’t stopped lying, prosecutors said.
Salman “knowingly engaged in misleading conduct” when she spoke to the FBI hours after her husband unleashed his furious attack that killed 49 people at the club, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Sweeney told the jury. Mateen was killed in the attack.
Sweeney said Salman believed the target of Mateen’s attack was supposed to be a Disney property the couple had recently visited. Sweeney said Mateen may have been scared off by security that night and decided to attack Pulse instead.
But defense lawyers Linda Moreno and Charles Swift described Salman as a simple woman who was abused by her husband and duped into believing he held moderate Islamic views. They dismissed the Disney theory as a last-minute ploy by prosecutors trying to salvage a lost case.
Much of the case will come down to the credibility of Salman’s signed, 12page statement and a number of her actions, which could be open for interpretation.
“I knew when he left the house he was going to Orlando to attack the Pulse nightclub,” the statement said. Salman also said she had accompanied him while casing Pulse and other potential targets. Yet testimony revealed that GPS and cellphone data showed that neither Mateen nor Salman had been near the nightclub before the attack.
She texted Mateen before and during his attack. Prosecutors say the messages prove she was helping to provide a cover story for him. Her attorneys say that’s wrong. She was lied to and was simply relaying plans because his mother invited them to dinner.
Surveillance footage captured Mateen, Salman and their son at Walmart purchasing several things, including ammunition he purportedly used in the massacre. The family also went to Disney before the attack. Salman’s lawyers contend it was just a family outing. Prosecutors say it shows she was part of his planning and helped.
The couple spent more than $32,000 in the days leading up to the attack. Mateen only made about $30,000 a year at his job. Salman’s attorneys say the intense spending was ahead of Mateen starting a new job. Prosecutors say putting this debt on Mateen’s credit cards shows she knew his plans and wanted to take advantage financially before his death.