June trial in slaying of GI on track

LITTLE ROCK — The Muslim convert who claims a shooting that killed a soldier outside a Little Rock recruiting center was a justified “jihadi attack” will face the possibility of the death penalty at trial in June barring any last-minute hitches.

On Friday, prosecutors and defense attorneys told a Pulaski County circuit judge they are ready for Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad’s trial on capital-murder charges.

Both sides said they have received all the evidence and reports they are entitled to get in a case where Muhammad, through a series of letters and interviews, has described the shootings as a legitimate response to the United States’ military efforts in the Middle East.

Pvt. William Long of Conway was fatally wounded and a fellow soldier, Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, then 18, of Jacksonville was injured by gunfire while taking a midmorning cigarette break outside the west Little Rock Army-Navy Career Center.

Questioned by the judge, Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Johnson said prosecutors have not offered the Memphis man a plea bargain, and defense attorney Claiborne Ferguson stated there are few facts to dispute, with his defense focusing on persuading a jury not to im-pose the death penalty.

Arrested within 12 minutes of the attack, Muhammad told detectives he would have killed more soldiers if they had been outside the center, according to arrest reports. In a letter to the presiding judge, he’s also recently claimed to be part of a Yemeni group linked to al-Qaida.

Long’s father, Daris Long, leading a group of about a half-dozen friends and family at the Pulaski County Courthouse on Friday, declined to discuss the case after the hearing, saying he didn’t want to potentially “inflame” the jury pool with his remarks.

While Long praised the efforts of the Pulaski County prosecuting attorney’s office, he questioned why a defendant who claims to be affiliated with a terrorist group isn’t facing federal terrorism charges. Acting U.S. Attorney Jane Duke did not return a call for comment Friday.

The 24-year-old Muhammad showed little reaction to Friday’s proceedings, aside from his right leg fidgeting. Muhammad, slouched in a chair with other inmates, his feet and hands cuffed and bound together with a leather strap, didn’t stand when bailiffs gave the order to rise as Circuit Judge Herb Wright entered the courtroom - a defiance that Wright seemed to notice but didn’t acknowledge.

Stoic during the three minute court appearance, Muhammad briefly smiled during a whispered exchange with Ferguson at the end of the hearing.

“Reassuring the client,” Ferguson said, explaining their conversation.

Muhammad has barely spoken at any of his five circuit court appearances and, when called to speak in court, has been soft-spoken. Outside court, he’s sometimes prayed, but on Friday in front of television cameras, Muhammad called for President Barack Obama’s death as an “infidel” who kills Muslims and said he supports Osama bin Laden.

“Death to Obama, peace to Osama,” he said.

Ferguson said he’s ready for trial, even with a ruling still pending by the Arkansas Supreme Court on whether Muhammad is entitled to public money for his defense.

Wright has ordered the Arkansas Public Defender Commission to pay Muhammad’s defense costs, a ruling the agency is challenging before the high court, with oral arguments pending.

Ferguson predicts that a victory on the fee issue before the high court, if Muhammad is convicted before such a ruling, could mean a reversal of that conviction. Ferguson initially estimated he needed about $30,000 for the defense, possibly including a Middle East trip to investigate his client’s links to the region. He has since declined to say how much he has sought.

Wright has determined Muhammad, born Carlos Leon Bledsoe, to be indigent,ruling that the defendant qualifies as indigent and deserving of state funds because his parents are paying Ferguson’s fees without any legal obligation to do so.

The Supreme Court has agreed to an expedited review of the commission’s claim that its is barred from providing funding to lawyers that it has not appointed, saying to do so would financially cripple the agency and force it to support lawyers who might not be qualified.

From his jail cell, Muhammad has repeatedly admitted to the shootings, in interviews with the media and letters to investigators and the judge, even seeking to plead guilty to the charges, which include attempted capital murder and 10 counts of unlawful discharge of a weapon from a vehicle - each carrying a potential life sentence.

Muhammad has described the shooting in writing as a “jihadi attack” in retaliation for U.S. military practices that he says targets fellow practitioners of his faith. He spent more than a year in Yemen, arriving to teach English and marrying a resident but leaving on a deportation order after overstaying an expired visa and possessing a counterfeit Somali passport.

Muhammad has disputed claims he was tortured by the Yemenis during the four months he was imprisoned in the country on the Arabian Peninsula - an accusation that the Yemeni government has also denied - saying he was abused by federal investigators. The FBI has acknowledged tracking Muhammad upon his return to the United States in January 2009. He moved to Little Rock the following month to run a branch of his father’s Memphis-based tour-bus company.

He had been living in Little Rock about four months at the time of the shootings, even attempting to legally resume his birth name in court. He abandoned that effort after his arrest.

Police found three guns and more than 500 rounds of ammunition in the truck Muhammad was driving when he was captured, seizing from his apartment a computer, a safe, a handwritten note, another piece of paper with Arabic handwriting, CDs with Arabic markings, two cell phones, and a camouflage bag containing an MP3 player, a sawed-off gun barrel, a saw, saw blades and two ammunition magazines.

An intelligence assessment compiled by the FBI and Homeland Security Department indicated that Muhammad also researched Jewish and Christian sites as well as locations in Little Rock, Philadelphia, New York, Atlanta, Memphis and Louisville, Ky., that included synagogues, a Baptist church, a day-care center, post offices and recruiting centers. Federal authorities reportedly notified law enforcement agencies in those areas of their findings.