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Crime Scene Evidence Hard on Balbir's Widow in Hate-crime Killing Trial
09/08/2003
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0908evhatekill08.html
Crime scene evidence hard on widow in Sikh killing trial
Jim Walsh
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 8, 2003 12:00 AM
MESA - It was a standard piece of murder trial evidence: an enlarged police photograph of a murder scene with a body bag covering the victim.
For Herjinder Kaur, widow of victim Balbir Singh Sodhi, the photograph was more realism than she could bear and she fainted outside a Mesa courtroom last week.
"She had a pretty hard time seeing that picture. She was shocked," said her son, Sukhwinder Singh Sodhi, 30.
Family members offered to take Kaur home, not wanting to risk creating a scene in front of jurors who eventually will decide if Frank Roque, 44, is guilty of first-degree murder and other crimes.
Because prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, jurors also will decide if Roque will be executed, imprisoned for life or sent to the state mental hospital.
But the widow returned to Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Mark Aceto's courtroom and again took her seat in the front row with other family members wearing turbans and veils, symbols of their Sikh faith.
"Maybe she wants to just go through this and get it done," Sukhwinder Singh Sodhi said.
Roque's trial, which may continue through early October, serves at once as a flashback to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the backlash against immigrants that followed.
Family members are reliving the murder of Singh Sodhi, 49, a citizen of India who immigrated to the United States in 1989, drove a cab for years in San Francisco and opened a Chevron station with his brother Harjit at 80th Street and University Drive in east Mesa in February 2001.
Harjit Singh Sodhi, who also operates an Indian restaurant, said before the trial started Tuesday that his brother was looking for a safer occupation after being robbed as a cabbie.
"I said, 'Come to Phoenix and we can do a business together,' " he said.
Prosecutors argue Roque murdered Singh Sodhi during a drive-by shooting on Sept. 15, 2001, five days after the terrorist attacks, because he was consumed by hatred toward Arabs or anyone who looks Arab.
Roque admitted shooting Singh Sodhi as part of a guilty but insane defense. Defense attorney Dan Patterson said Roque, as a native of New York City, was uniquely affected and emotionally overcome when terrorists used hijacked jetliners to topple the World Trade Center.
Patterson argues that Roque suffered from an undiagnosed and untreated mental illness that caused him to hear relentless voices telling him to "kill the devils."
The key question for jurors is whether they believe defense experts, who are expected to testify that Roque was insane and incapable of appreciating the wrongfulness of his acts, or prosecution experts who say Roque is not insane and killed out of rage.
The prosecution is expected to rest early next week, with psychiatric testimony expected the following week.
As the case unfolds, Singh Sodhi's family is awaiting word from the U.S. government on the immigration status of his widow, who is an Indian citizen. Kaur's tourist visa expired Aug. 28, but the family had applied for an extension so she can attend the entire trial. Victims have a right to attend all court proceedings under Arizona law.
The family also has asked Sen. John McCain for help in having Singh Sodhi designated a victim of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
"This is a hideous, odious crime," said McCain spokesman Marshall Wittmann, who said his office is researching the matter. "Obviously they certainly have suffered."
Rana Singh Sodhi, another of the murder victim's brothers, said Balbir Singh Sodhi would be alive today if not for the terrorist attacks.
"He lost his life because of 9/11/01," Rana Singh Sodhi said. "Our family would feel honored for him to be a victim of 9/11/01."
On the day he was murdered, Balbir Singh Sodhi was shopping at Costco and donated $74, the change he had in his pocket, to the Red Cross fund for 9/11 victims, Harjit Singh Sodhi testified last week.
Sukhwinder Singh Sodhi said Balbir mentioned to one of his other sons that he wanted to travel to New York to help victims of the terrorist attacks.
Rana Singh Sodhi said his family has no interest in tapping the Victims Compensation Fund, established to aid the families of terrorist attack victims. Their only interest is having their family's tragic loss recognized.
"We're hard-working people. We're not looking for easy money," he said.
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