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Following the Trial: Defendant Told of Argument with Sikh, Friends Testify
09/09/2003
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0909roque09.html
Defendant told of spat with Sikh, friends say
Jim Walsh
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 9, 2003 12:00 AM
Two former co-workers testified Monday that hate-crime murder defendant Frank Roque told them he had an altercation with a man in a turban days before he shot a Sikh gas station owner to death.
But the Boeing employees, Barry Hammond and Rafael Baldenegro, said Roque never described plans to murder the man he quarreled with at the gas station.
"He had some words or an altercation with a man. He said he had the altercation at a gas station," Baldenegro said. "He said he was probably an Indian or something like that."
Roque, 44, admits he shot Balbir Singh Sodhi, 49, to death on Sept. 15, 2001, five days after terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., and an attack that failed in Pennsylvania left 3,000 Americans dead.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, but defense attorney Dan Patterson said Roque is mentally ill, was uniquely affected by the terrorist attacks and heard relentless voices telling him to "kill the devil."
Sodhi was one of at least three immigrants shot to death across the nation in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks.
The co-workers' testimony suggests possible premeditation on Roque's part. Sodhi was wearing a turban outside his gas station when he was gunned down.
Baldenegro said Roque acknowledged the argument was at a Chevron station at 80th Street and University Drive, the same station Sodhi owned with one of his brothers.
In other testimony Monday, Dr. Mark Fischione, deputy Maricopa County medical examiner, testified that Sodhi was shot five times and that three bullets were recovered from the victim's body.
He said Sodhi died of blood loss a few seconds to one or 1½ minutes after he was shot.
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