NATION: Testimony in Cold War spy case released
A4
New dinosaur found in China Scientists think it’s a close cousin of the Velociraptor A5
SERVING SOUTH CAROLINA SINCE OCTOBER 15, 1894
FRIDAY, JULY 17, 2015
75 CENTS
Trial set for 2016
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dylann Roof appears at a court hearing in Charleston on Thursday. A judge ruled Thursday that Roof, accused of killing nine people at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston in June, will stand trial in July 2016.
Church shooting suspect will face jury in July next year CHARLESTON (AP) — A white man charged with killing nine black parishioners at a Charleston church will stand trial next July, a judge ruled during a brief hearing Thursday. Circuit Judge J.C. Nicholson set a July 11, 2016, trial date for Dylann Roof, 21, who faces multiple charges, including nine counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder stemming from the June 17 shootings. Roof sat quietly during the proceedings in a gray-striped prison jump suit in a courtroom crowded with about 100 people. He was presented copies of the indictments, and public defender Ashley
Pennington told the judge he would not seek bond at this time “based on the totality of the circumstances.” The judge called Roof a flight risk, noting he was arrested in Shelby, North Carolina, about 250 miles away, the day after the parishioners were shot to death during a Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. After the hearing, a document was filed signed by the judge denying bond on the grounds that Roof is a flight risk and an unreasonable danger to the community. Federal authorities have not said whether they will pursue hate crime
charges against Roof, although Justice Department officials have said they broadly agree the shootings meet the legal requirements for a hate crime. Also during the 25-minute hearing:
DEATH PENALTY Solicitor Scarlett Wilson, the local prosecutor, said the case “has the potential for a capital case” although the state has not yet said if it is seeking the death penalty.
THE DEFENDANT’S COMPETENCY Pennington said that attorneys have
SEE TRIAL, PAGE A8
Officials: 4 Marines killed in Tennessee CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — A gunman unleashed a barrage of fire at a recruiting center and another U.S. military site a few miles apart in Chattanooga on Thursday, killing at least four Marines, officials said. The attacker was also killed. Federal authorities said they were investigating the possibility it was an act of terrorism. A U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity identified the gunman as 24-year-old Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez of Hixson, Tennessee, and said he was thought to have been born in Kuwait, though it was unclear whether he was a U.S. or Kuwaiti citizen. “Lives have been lost from some faithful people who have been serving our country, and I think I join all Tennesseans in being both sickened and saddened by this,” Gov. Bill Haslam said. Within hours of the bloodshed, law officers with guns drawn swarmed what was thought to be Abdulazeez’s house, and two females were led away in handcuffs. A dozen law enforcement vehicles, including a bomb-squad truck and an open-sided Army green truck carrying armed men, rolled into the Colonial Shores neighborhood of Hixson, and police closed off streets and turned away people trying to reach their homes. The shootings took place minutes apart, with the gunman stopping his car and spraying dozens of bullets first at a recruiting center for all branches of the military, then apparently driving to a NavyMarine training center 7 miles away, authorities and witnesses said. The attacks were over within a half hour. Authorities would not say how the gunman died.
SEE SHOOTING, PAGE A8
Jury finds Colorado theater shooter guilty of murder CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) — Jurors convicted Colorado theater shooter James Holmes on Thursday in the chilling 2012 attack on defenseless moviegoers at a midnight Batman premiere, rejecting defense arguments that the former graduate student was insane and driven to murder by delusions. The 27-year-old Holmes, who had been working toward his Ph.D. in neuroscience, could get the death penalty for the massacre that left 12 people dead and dozens of others wounded. Jurors took about 13 hours
VISIT US ONLINE AT
the
.com
over a day and a half to review all 165 charges. The same panel must now decide whether Holmes should pay with his life. The verdict came almost three years after Holmes, dressed head to toe in body armor, slipped through the emergency exit of the darkened theater in suburban Denver and replaced the Hollywood violence of the movie “The Dark Knight Rises” with real human carnage. His victims included two active-duty servicemen, a single mom, a man celebrating his 27th birthday and an aspiring
broadcaster who had survived a mall shooting in Toronto. Several died shielding friends or loved ones. The trial offered a rare glimpse into the mind of a mass shooter, as most are killed by police, kill themselves or plead guilty. Prosecutors argued Holmes knew exactly what he was doing when he methodically gunned down strangers in the stadium-style theater, taking aim at those who fled. They painted him as a calculated killer who sought to assuage
DEATHS, B4 and B5 Willie Lee Daney Jr. Marquetta B. Murray Lois Edna S. Mitchell Martha McElveen Horne Anthony Lee Mathis Maurice L. Lewis Bobbie Philip
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sandy Phillips, whose daughter Jessica Ghawi was killed in the 2012 Aurora movie theatre massacre, carries a T-shirt memorializing the 12 people killed in the attack as she stands outside the Arapahoe County District Court after the day of closing arguments in the trial of theater shootings SEE VERDICT, PAGE A7 defendant James Holmes in Centennial, Colorado, on Tuesday.
Sarah C. Gardner James E. Bethea Marvin Earl Wade Hermaina Spann David Muldrow Jr. Eva Nell H. Lovelace
WEATHER, A12
INSIDE
PARTLY SUNNY
2 SECTIONS, 20 PAGES VOL. 120, NO. 230
A thunderstorm expected early this evening and partly cloudy tonight HIGH 92, LOW 73
Classifieds B6 Comics A10 Lotteries A12
Opinion A11 Sports B1 Television A9