Trial begins for wife of Pulse killer
She’s charged with aiding 2016 Florida club massacre
Christine Leinonen couldn’t care less about the widow of the Pulse nightclub gunman.
She plans to attend the first day of the trial Thursday that’s set to determine Noor Salman’s fate, but only with the hope she might get some answers — anything to better understand what happened to her son, Christopher, before he died inside the Orlando venue.
“It’s not going to be easy to hear the details of what happened inside and what led up to the shooting, but I already have nightmares,” she said. “It can’t be worse than what I already imagine happened to my son.”
It has been nearly two years since the shooting on June 12, 2016, left 49 clubgoers dead and dozens injured. Gunman Omar Mateen traveled about 120 miles for the deadly ambush and died in a shootout with officers.
Salman was charged with aiding and abetting the support of a foreign terrorist organization and obstruction of justice. She faces up to life in federal prison.
Batches of documents have been made public in the months before her trial. The records help paint a picture of two conflicting women: a mother in a violent marriage who was afraid of her husband and knew nothing, and an accomplice who knew the terror her husband planned and helped push his plans forward.
Her story has changed multiple times, prosecutors say. In the end, she initialed and signed a 12-page statement that outlined her knowledge of Mateen’s planning and said she knew he was going to attack the club when he left their home.
Prosecutors also have accused Salman of helping provide a cover story for Mateen as he traveled to Orlando for the attack. Text messages, which Salman deleted, show she told her husband what to say if his mother called to invite him to dinner.
In her statement to law enforce- ment, she said Mateen was looking at the website for the club and told her, “this is my target.”
Salman’s attorneys plan to argue the statements were coerced through hours of interrogation. Salman told a psychologist she signed the statements only “so she could be allowed to go home,” according to assessments made public Wednesday in federal court.
She also says authorities threatened her during the questioning, telling her her son would be taken from her and raised in a “Christian home” — an allegation a federal judge ruled not credible, according to court documents.
The psychologist also examined her mental state and found she suffered from a “significant mental disorder” along with post-traumatic stress disorder, which was caused by alleged physical and mental abuse by her husband.
Salman filled out a “danger assessment” form about her husband, which was also unsealed Wednesday, and said Mateen threatened to kill her, raped her, choked her and beat her while she was pregnant with their son.
Salman has not testified during any of her hearings. It’s unclear whether she will take the stand during the trial.
The trial could last weeks or months. Prosecutors will have to prove not only that Salman knew about her husband’s planned attack but also that she intentionally associated with the plan or contributed to it.
Many of those who survived the carnage inside the nightclub are still trying to move forward.
The new spotlight on the shooting is something they aren’t looking forward to, especially since video and other details previously not disclosed will be made public for the first time.
Christopher Hansen, who was inside the club and helped save patrons after the shooting, said he has mixed feeling about whether he’ll attend.
He said the shooting is still “a scab that will be reopened like an unhealed wound. It hurts.”
About 75 people who were affected by the shooting told prosecutors they would attend some of the proceedings, according to federal court records. But Hansen said many other survivors have no interest in it.
Leinonen said it’s the only way to get details of what happened, since the FBI has not released much information ahead of the trial.
She said it’s important for Salman to have a fair trial — but if she is found guilty, Leinonen hopes for the maximum sentence. “I’ve committed no crime whatsoever, but here I sit with a life sentence,” she said. “My son never committed a crime in his life and he got the death penalty.”
Some survivors and family members believe the trial could bring the last piece of closure, but for Leinonen, she doesn’t believe she’ll ever be able to move on.
“I’m going to my grave with grief. But I think all of this will help me better understand how it all happened, and hopefully why it had to happen to my son.”
“It’s not going to be easy to hear the details of what happened. ... I already have nightmares.”
Christine Leinonen Her son, Christopher, died in the shooting