Balbir Singh Sodhi
Opening statements begin in Sikh shooting trial

Associated Press
Sept. 2, 2003

A man accused of fatally shooting an Indian immigrant days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was premeditated in carrying out the murder, a prosecutor said Tuesday. On the day of the attacks, Frank Silva Roque was overheard promising to shoot people whom he used an ethnic slur to describe, prosecutor Vince Imbordino said during opening statements at Roque's trial.

Roque is accused of killing gas station owner Balbir Singh Sodhi, 49, on Sept. 15, 2001. He also is charged with committing drive-by shootings later that same day at a home owned by a family from Afghanistan and at a convenience store owned by a Lebanese man. No one was injured in the latter shootings.

"This is a clash of two cultures and, in part, a result of Sept. 11," Imbordino said. "But the murder of Mr. Sodhi ran much deeper than that." A restaurant employee will testify about Roque's behavior on the day of the attacks, including his use of a slur and his promise to shoot someone, Imbordino said.

Police reports quoted Roque as saying "I'm a patriot" and that he was "standing up for his brothers and sisters" in New York after his arrest on the day of the shootings. Roque's attorneys are presenting a "guilty except insane" defense. Defense attorney Daniel Patterson said Roque suffers from mental illnesses that caused him to hear voices in his head and that he doesn't have a history of racial or ethnic hatred.

The attacks served as a catalyst for his psychological problems and manifested a hatred for people from the Middle East, Patterson said.

"The voices said kill the devils, not the Muslims, Arabs or Sikhs," Patterson said. A court-appointed psychiatrist found Roque was sane at the time of the killing, according to reports released last week. If the jury finds Roque was insane, he wouldn't be subject to the death penalty that prosecutors are seeking. But he would be confined to a state hospital until doctors determine he is no longer a threat.

Balbir Sodhi was outside his gas station when authorities say Roque drove up and shot him. News of Sodhi's death touched off protests in his homeland and prompted India's prime minister to call President Bush. About 3,000 people also attended a memorial service for Sodhi at the Phoenix Civic Plaza the week after the shootings.

The trial is expected to last about a month, with prosecutors calling between 40 and 50 witnesses.