
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 5, 1995                   TAG: 9504050087
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

CLINTON GUNMAN GUILTY

Francisco Martin Duran, a Colorado upholsterer who raked the White House with semiautomatic rifle fire last fall, was convicted Tuesday of attempting to assassinate President Clinton.

In returning the guilty verdict, a federal court jury rejected Duran's insanity defense. He had claimed he was shooting at an evil ``mist'' hovering over the White House, but psychiatric experts disagreed about whether he was deranged.

Duran, 26, of Colorado Springs, Colo., faces a maximum sentence of life in prison on the attempted-assassination conviction. U.S. District Judge Charles Richey set sentencing for June 29.

During the two-week trial, defense attorneys had argued that insanity drove Duran to pull the rifle from under his trench coat and open fire on the White House on Oct. 29, 1994, as dozens of tourists stood nearby.

No one was injured. The Secret Service said Clinton was inside the White House's family quarters at the time, watching a Saturday afternoon football game, and was never in danger. Duran was subdued by two bystanders.

After deliberating nearly five hours, jurors rejected the testimony of two psychiatrists and a psychologist who characterized Duran as a paranoid schizophrenic who didn't realize his actions were wrong.

``Clearly Mr. Duran knew what he was doing was wrong,'' Assistant U.S. Attorney Brenda J. Johnson told reporters after the verdict was announced. ``He wrote things down. He planned this out. He wasn't crazy. ... It was deliberate and premeditated.''

In addition to attempted assassination, Duran was convicted of nine other charges: one count of damaging federal property, four counts of assaulting the Secret Service officers, one count of unlawful possession of the rifle in interstate commerce, one count of unlawful possession of a shotgun in interstate commerce, one count of carrying a weapon during a crime of violence and one count of carrying a firearm across state lines with the intent to murder the president.

The prosecution said Duran had grown to hate Clinton and the U.S. government while serving 21/2 years at a military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kan., for drunken driving and running down a woman with his car while stationed in Hawaii as an Army medic. Duran was dishonorably discharged over the incident.

by CNB