LITTLE ROCK — The capital murder trial of Abdulhakim Muhammad is under way. Check back for updates throughout the day.
4:30 update - Prosecution rests
The prosecution has rested its case in the Abdulhakim Muhammad trial, which began Tuesday. They brought several witnesses to the stand, including the Army private injured in the 2009 shooting.
The day began with jurors watching video of a police interview with Muhammad conducted shortly after his arrest.
The defense will open its arguments Friday morning.
2:45 p.m. update - Safe contents seen
Jurors in the Abdulhakim Muhammad trial watched Thursday as prosecutors brought in a safe seized from Muhammad's west Little Rock apartment and introduced as evidence an array of documents from inside.
Pulaski County Chief Deputy Prosecutor John Johnson first questioned Little Rock Police Department crime scene specialist Reagan Block about photos taken of Muhammad's apartment, 12201 Maralynn Road, and then presented the small black safe.
Johnson questioned Block about the contents, which included currency from Yemen, Muhammad's birth certificate, a teaching certificate, a marriage license, instructions for getting visa in Saudi Arabia and Muhammad's last will and testament. The will was dated March 18, 2009,
which Johnson pointed out was less than three months before the shooting in Little Rock.
Block also described seizing a duffel bag from the apartment and finding hacksaws, hacksaw blades, spray paint, gun clips, receipts and part of a gun barrel that had been sawed-off.
Block testified the apartment appeared orderly and ordinary when she arrived.
12:25 p.m. update - Muhammad objects during video
For the second time since his capital murder trial started, Abdulhakim Muhammad spoke up during court, drawing a stern warning from the judge not to disrupt the proceedings.
Muhammad raised his hand and said "objection" while jurors were watching video of FBI questioning recorded the day of his arrest.
In the video, authorities had just asked Muhammad if it bothered him knowing that the soldier he fatally shot outside a Little Rock recruiting center - Pvt. William Long - died so close to his mother. She was waiting in a nearby parking space to give her son a ride from the center.
Muhammad is shown in the video taking a long pause and then responding that it didn't bother him because Long was "in the army."
"Objection," the 26-year-old Muhammad said in court, pointing toward the front row of the courtroom where Long's mother and other family members were sitting. "I didn't know she was there."
Wright motioned for Muhammad to be quiet and defense attorney Claiborne Ferguson, who had moved across the room to get a better view of the FBI video, returned to quiet his client.
He made no further outbursts, but could be seen wiping his eyes and sniffing as though he was crying when the hearing broke for lunch around 12:15 p.m.
After the jury had left the room, Wright told Muhammad to send future objections through his attorneys. He noted Muhammad had disrupted the proceedings twice.
"Don't make it a third time," Wright said.
The FBI video showed Muhammad answering a range of questions, including describing how he converted to Islam, traveled to Yemen, became upset over war crimes against Muslims and resolved to seek revenge.
The agent conducting the interview is heard repeatedly challenging Muhammad about the relevancy of targeting a soldier outside a Little Rock recruiting station.
Muhammad insists in the video that one soldier in the army is no different than another and that his attack was a legitimate retaliation. At one point, he says he read about a whole Muslim civilian family being killed in a U.S. bombing.
"If you feel what happened today is wrong, you have to say the same thing," Muhammad says.
At other times in the video, Muhammad acknowledges he once was in a gang before he converted to Islam, gives investigators the password to his computer so they can search it and says he was pleased President Obama was elected, but disappointed he didn't pull troops out of the Middle East and work to better ties with the Muslim community.
Challenged about the danger of firing an assault rifle in front of a recruiting center where a 17-year-old boy was inside, Muhammad insists he had no idea the civilian was there and says there was no way he could have seen inside to know.
"If they got shot, it wasn't my intention to shoot them," Muhammad says in the video, adding, "I would feel real bad. Really bad. That is wrong."
Muhammad says later in the interview that he might have "cooled down" and not shot anyone if he hadn't seen the soldiers outside the center while driving by that morning.
Muhammad was arrested in a traffic stop shortly after the June 1, 2009 attack.
- Gavin Lesnick
11:00 a.m. update - Juror tells court he was approached about case
A juror in the Abdulhakim Muhammad trial told the court he was approached about the case during a restroom break.
The male juror said a man he didn't know asked him in the bathroom if he was on the Muhammad case and then started to talk about "manuscripts" he had been reading.
"I just turned around and walked on out the door," the juror said, drawing laughs later when he said he didn't get a good look at the man: "I was washing my hands from peeing. I wasn't even really looking at him."
The juror was asked to point out the man if he sees him again. He was allowed to stay on the panel after telling Judge Herb Wright the interaction didn't affect his view of the case.
Wright urged the courtroom not to address jurors or face "very, very dire" consequences.
- Gavin Lesnick
10:50 a.m. update - Jurors see interview
The second day of testimony in the Abdulhakim Muhammad case has begun with jurors watching video of a police interview with Muhammad conducted shortly after his arrest.
In the video, Muhammad matter-of-factly and calmly describes becoming upset over a Dutch film that he says detailed the rape and murder of Muslims. He said he "blacked out" after seeing the footage on the internet and later set out to kill military members, ultimately opening fire outside an Army recruiting center in Little rock.
"It's an act of retaliation," he tells Little Rock Police Department homicide detectives Tommy Hudson and Matt Nelson. "There's a war going on."
The video shows Muhammad calmly acknowledging he had waived his rights and then leaning back in his chair and telling the investigators he would "go back to 2004" to inform them of his motivation.
Muhammad goes on to describe converting to Islam, being arrested while teaching in Yemen and seeing news coverage of war crimes against Muslims.
"It made me angry," he says of the latter.
Muhammad says in the video he watched the documentary the night before the shooting in Little Rock and that he then "made up (his) mind" to "act on behalf of Muslims."
"I was not just thinking of American soldiers," he says. "(It was) anyone who was doing this to our religion."
At one point, Hudson asks Muhammad about his weapons - an assault rifle, a .22 rifle and a pistol - and his ammunition.
"I had a lot," Muhammad says.
"That's what I hear," Hudson replies.
Muhammad said he was aware of the recruiting center and chose his victims when he saw two soldiers in Army fatigues standing outside. Pvt. William Long died in the June 1, 2009 attack while Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula was injured.
Had other soldiers been outside, Muhammad "would have shot them too," he says. He notes he would not have shot "kids or innocent bystanders" and did not ever intend to shoot police when they stopped his truck a short time later.
He says in the video he acted alone and didn't want personal attention.
"It's not a name for myself," he tells the detectives. "I was hoping I wouldn't get caught."
Muhammad's attorneys are pursuing an insanity defense, though he claims he is sane.
Hudson, in testimony after the video played, said Muhammad appeared to understand the questions and offered appropriate responses, suggesting he was not delusional or suffering from a mental disorder.
"He understood what was going on and why he was there," Hudson said.
- Gavin Lesnick
7:15 a.m. update - Muhammad now at court
The man charged with killing a U.S. Army soldier and wounding another outside a recruiting station in Little Rock has arrived at the court for what could be the final day of prosecution witnesses in his murder trial.
Abdulhakim Muhammad was escorted into Pulaski County Circuit Court about 6:40 a.m. Thursday.
Muhammad faces a possible death sentence if convicted of capital murder in the June 1, 2009, shooting death of Pvt. William Long and the wounding of the second soldier outside the recruiting office in west Little. Rock. Muhammad has claimed he had ties to al-Qaida and told The Associated Press the shooting was in retaliation for U.S. military action in the Middle East.
Defense attorneys say he was mentally ill — a claim that Muhammad denies.
- The Associated Press