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Sodhi Shooter Suffered from Disorder, Witness Says
10/08/2003
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1007sikh-shooting07-ON.html
Sikh killer suffered from disorder, witness says
Associated Press
Oct. 7, 2003 05:55 PM
A man convicted of killing a Sikh man because of the way he looked suffered from traumatic stress disorder triggered by the Sept. 11 attacks, a psychiatrist said Tuesday.
The testimony came as jurors are considering whether to sentence Frank Silva Roque to death for fatally shooting Indian immigrant Balbir Singh Sodhi in front of Sodhi's Mesa gas station on Sept. 15, 2001.
After killing Sodhi, Roque, 44, shot at another gas station, where the clerk was a man of Lebanese descent, and shot at the home of an Afghan family. No one else was hurt.
Prosecutors say Roque targeted Sodhi because he mistook the Indian immigrant, who wore a turban and long beard as part of his Sikh faith, for a Middle Eastern man.
"Had Sept. 11 not occurred, this horrific event would not have occurred," said Dr. Jack Potts, a court-appointed psychiatrist.
Potts' testimony was a turnabout. During the trial, Potts testified for prosecutors, saying he believed the notion that Roque was mentally ill to be "clearly arguable."
But he now says he has done additional research on post-traumatic stress disorder prompted by the Sept. 11 attacks and believes Roque's rage was based on an underlying mental illness propelled by the attacks.
Roque's attorney contend Roque was insane at the time of the shooting - a paranoid schizophrenic - and that the crime was not racially motivated.
During the trial, a defense psychiatrist said Roque suffered from brief reactive psychosis and depression with psychotic features and couldn't tell right from wrong, which is a key standard in determining whether a defendant was legally insane.
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