XPost: sac.politics, talk.politics.misc, dumb.ass.democrats.amer   
   ca.hating.assholes   
   XPost: alt.crime   
   From: stupid@stoners.gay   
      
   BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — A mentally ill man who killed 10 people at   
   a Colorado supermarket was convicted Monday of murder by a jury   
   that rejected his attempt to avoid prison time by pleading not   
   guilty by reason of insanity.   
      
   Victims’ relatives recounted in pained testimony the lives   
   gunman Ahmad Alissa destroyed in the 2021 attack in the college   
   town of Boulder.   
      
   Nikolena Stanisic, whose only sibling, Neven, was killed,   
   recalled going out to ice cream with her brother the night   
   before he was shot and how he would sometimes help her with her   
   bills. She told the court that their household — once filled   
   with talk and laughter — is now mostly silent.   
      
   “To the person that’s done this, we hope that you suffer for the   
   rest of your life. You are a coward,” Stanisic said. “I hope   
   this haunts the defendant until the end of time. The defendant   
   deserves the absolute worse.”   
      
   Defense attorneys did not dispute that Alissa, who has   
   schizophrenia, fatally shot 10 people including a police   
   officer. But the defense argued he was insane at the time of the   
   attack and couldn’t tell right from wrong.   
      
   In addition to 10 counts of first-degree murder, the jury found   
   Alissa guilty on 38 charges of attempted murder, one count of   
   assault, and six counts of possessing illegal, large-capacity   
   magazines.   
      
   First-degree murder carries a mandatory life sentence in   
   Colorado, and the sentencing hearing immediately followed the   
   verdict on Monday.   
      
   Alissa did not visibly react as the judge began reciting the   
   guilty verdicts against him. He sat at a table with his   
   attorneys and appeared to trade notes with members of the   
   defense team, speaking quietly at times with one of his   
   attorneys.   
      
   Judge Ingrid Bakke had warned against any outbursts. There were   
   some tears and restrained crying on the victims’ side of the   
   courtroom as the murder convictions were read.   
      
   The courtroom was packed largely with victims’ families and   
   police officers, including those who were shot at by Alissa.   
   Several members of Alissa’s family sat just behind him.   
      
   Alissa started shooting immediately after getting out of his car   
   in a King Soopers store parking lot in March 2021. He killed   
   most of the victims in just over a minute and surrendered after   
   an officer shot him in the leg.   
      
   Erika Mahoney was in California, six months pregnant, when she   
   found out about the attack in which her father was killed. She   
   was so upset she thought she was going to lose the baby, Mahoney   
   told the court.   
      
   Mahoney said she wanted an apology or remorse from the gunman or   
   his family but has not gotten any.   
      
   “The door is still open,” she said. “Until then, I will start:   
   I’m sorry for your suffering, past, present and future…I wish   
   you would have gotten more love.”   
      
   Until the trial, Mahoney said, she prayed that her father’s   
   final moments were painless and that he didn’t know he was going   
   to die. However, video from the attack showed there was a chase   
   and Kevin Mahoney tried to get away but found nowhere to take   
   cover, Erika Mahoney said.   
      
   Alissa at times looked toward the victims’ relatives as they   
   spoke. For much of the time he sat hunched over, talking to his   
   attorney or writing.   
      
   Prosecutors had to prove Alissa was sane. They argued he didn’t   
   fire randomly and showed an ability to make decisions by   
   pursuing people who were running and trying to hide from him. He   
   twice passed by a 91-year-old man who continued to shop, unaware   
   of the shooting.   
      
   He came armed with steel-piercing bullets and illegal magazines   
   that can hold 30 rounds of ammunition, which prosecutors said   
   showed he took deliberate steps to make the attack as deadly as   
   possible.   
      
   Several members of Alissa’s family, who immigrated to the United   
   States from Syria, testified that he had become withdrawn and   
   spoke less a few years before the shooting. He later began   
   acting paranoid and showed signs of hearing voices, they said,   
   and his condition worsened after he got COVID-19 in late 2020.   
      
   Alissa was diagnosed with schizophrenia after the attack and   
   experts said the behaviors described by relatives are consistent   
   with the onset of the disease.   
      
      
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