By Associated Press
PITTSBURGH — The attorney for a man convicted of killing five people in a hate-motivated shooting spree began focusing on the appeal moments after a jury recommended the death penalty for his client.
Attorney James Wymard said the judge was wrong to let the jury hear a taped phone conversation between the defendant and his parents in which Richard Baumhammers’ mother called him racist.
Baumhammers, 35, was convicted of five counts of murder and eight counts of ethnic intimidation. The same jury recommended the death sentence Friday.
Prosecutors maintained the white unemployed immigration attorney selected his victims because of their ethnic backgrounds. Baumhammers’ 90-minute shooting spree through the Pittsburgh suburbs killed his Jewish neighbor, two Asian men, an Indian man and a black man.
Baumhammers’ attorneys didn’t dispute that the April 28, 2000, shootings occurred, but said their client was delusional and lacked the mental ability to tell right from wrong.
Baumhammers showed no expression as the verdict was read. He nodded slightly to his parents as he was led from the courtroom. An appeal is automatic in death penalty cases in Pennsylvania.
The conversation between Baumhammers and his parents was taped with their knowledge while Baumhammers was in jail awaiting trial. In it, they asked him about rumors that he had signed magazine articles about the Confederate flag and a cross burning for other inmates.
“You’re stupid. Signing your name like you’re some big honcho or something. What is this?” Inese Baumhammers said to her son. During the same conversation she called him racist.
Andrejs Baumhammers testified during the penalty phase of the trial that he and his wife later learned other inmates had signed the articles using Baumhammers’ name. He said the angry exchange was the only one included in 400 conversations taped at the jail.
The only surviving victim of the shooting, Sandip Patel, who was paralyzed when Baumhammers opened fire at the Indian grocery where he worked, said he was satisfied with the jury’s decision but it doesn’t help him now.
“I cannot say that I am happy. He killed five people and he paralyzed me,” Patel said. “My life has been totally messed up.” |
