US gunman may face death penalty

Strong evidence against man charged in Chapel Hill murders, say prosecutors

DURHAM: The man charged with killing three Muslim college students will face a death penalty trial after prosecutors told a judge they had strong and incriminating evidence that included the blood from one of the victims found on the accused shooter’s pants.

After a brief hearing on Monday, Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson Jr ruled that Craig Stephen Hicks was “death penalty qualified”.

Hicks, who remained handcuffed throughout the court proceedings, showed no visible emotion as the judge announced his decision.

He was charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the Feb 10 killings Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21, and her sister, 19-year-old Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha.

Durham County Assistant District

Hicks shot Barakat multiple times, then entered the apartment and shot each of the screaming women in the head. — JIM DORNFRIED

Attorney Jim Dornfried said at the preliminary hearing that Hicks was taken into custody while in possession of a .357-caliber handgun, which ballistics testing had matched to the eight shell casings recovered at the victims’ apartment.

There was also gunshot residue on Hicks’ hands.

Police have said Hicks, 46, appeared to have been motivated by a long-running dispute over parking spaces at the condominium complex near the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he lived in the same building as dental student Barakat and his wife.

Dornfried said Monday that Hicks had revealed details about the killings while under questioning.

“There were certain issues he described involving parking,” Dornfried told the judge.

“He retrieved a firearm from his residence, then proceeded over to the residence of the victims ... the door was answered by Deah Barakat. There was a brief interaction, at which time the defendant pulled out his concealed firearm.

“Hicks shot Barakat multiple times, then entered the apartment and shot each of the screaming women in the head.”

He then pumped another slug into Barakat as he left the apartment, the prosecutor said.

After prosecutors asked the judge to approve the death penalty, defence lawyer Terry Alford declined to speak.

The victims’ families are adamant that they were targeted because they were Muslims and have pushed for hate crime charges.

They sat in the second row of the courtroom and declined the comment after the hearing.

The FBI is conducting what it has called a “parallel preliminary inquiry” to the homicide investigation to determine whether any federal laws were violated, including hate crime statutes.

Durham District Attorney Roger Echols said after the hearing that he did not anticipate filing additional state charges against Hicks, but that his office was cooperating with the federal inquiry.

To support the death penalty under North Carolina law, prosecutors must show Hicks’ alleged crimes had aggravating factors – in this case that one of the murders was committed during a second murder and that there was an act of violence committed with a second act of violence.

Search warrants listed a dozen firearms recovered from the condominium unit Hicks shared with his wife, in addition to the handgun he had with him when he turned himself in after the shootings.

Hicks, who was unemployed and taking community college classes to become a paralegal, posted online that he was an atheist and a staunch advocate of the Second Amendment right to bear arms.

Hicks is being held at a state prison in Raleigh pending trial. — AP