ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 19, 1996 TAG: 9603190086
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: DEDHAM, MASS.
SOURCE: Associated Press
A DEFENSE PSYCHIATRIST said the abortion-clinic shooter is a paranoid schizophrenic who wanted armed priests to lead a Catholic militia.
Rejecting claims that John C. Salvi III was driven by delusions of a vast anti-Catholic conspiracy, a jury Monday convicted him of murdering two women in a shooting rampage at two abortion clinics.
The 24-year-old loner received the mandatory sentence of life in prison with no parole for the 1994 attacks in the Boston suburb of Brookline.
As the verdicts were read, Salvi, who had repeatedly disrupted proceedings earlier in the case with demands to air his conspiracy notions, stood quietly, staring vacantly or bowing his head, his dark tie crooked.
The jury deliberated nine hours over two days. Four of the six women on the jury cried as the verdicts were read, as did friends and relatives of the victims, and Salvi's mother.
The drama was extended as victims and their relatives read ``victim impact statements'' to the court just before the sentencing.
``You were a little man with a big gun,'' Ruth Ann Nichols, mother of one of the victims, said as she stared at Salvi. ``I hope you have sheer misery for every day of your life.''
Salvi's attorney, J.W. Carney Jr., had argued that his client was innocent by reason of insanity, and he repeatedly had asked Judge Barbara Dortch-Okara to declare Salvi incompetent to stand trial.
The defense contended that the aspiring hairdresser envisioned himself as a warrior fighting a worldwide anti-Catholic conspiracy led by the Mafia, Freemasons and the Ku Klux Klan.
Prosecutors argued that Salvi was in control of his senses and deliberately planned his crime. They noted Salvi practiced at a firing range the day before the killings, stocked up on 1,000 hollow-point bullets and cut his longish, curly hair hours after the attack.
In closing arguments, prosecutor John Kivlan asked, ``Every terrorist in this country we should excuse because they have strange beliefs?''
Rejecting the insanity defense, the jury convicted Salvi of two counts of first-degree murder and five of assault with intent to murder. First-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life without parole. Massachusetts has no death penalty.
If Salvi had been found innocent by reason of insanity, he would have been committed to a mental hospital and could have been released if authorities deemed he was no longer a danger to himself or others.
Salvi walked into a Planned Parenthood clinic Dec. 30, 1994, pulled out a killed, and three people in the waiting room were wounded.
He drove his pickup about two miles to the Preterm Health Services clinic and opened fire again, killing receptionist Lee Ann Nichols, 38, and wounding two people.
``This is what you get! You should pray the rosary!'' Salvi screamed as he pumped 10 bullets into Nichols.
Salvi was arrested the next day, after he fired at least 23 shots at the windows and doors of a Norfolk, Va., abortion clinic.
On hearing the verdict, Salvi's father came to his wife's aid as she doubled over in her seat. ``Just leave me alone,'' she said as her husband rubbed her back and her only child was led away.
The president of the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts hailed the verdict. ``I think it will help to de-escalate the climate of fear and violence that has surrounded the services that we provide,'' Nicki Nichols Gamble said.
Salvi was the third man to be convicted of murdering abortion-clinic workers. Paul Hill awaits execution for killing a doctor and a bodyguard in 1994 outside a clinic in Pensacola, Fla. Earlier that year, Michael Griffin was sentenced to life in prison for killing a doctor outside another Pensacola clinic.
At Salvi's trial, a defense psychiatrist, Dr. Phillip Resnick, testified that Salvi is a paranoid schizophrenic. He said Salvi told him that priests with M-16 rifles and pistols should lead a Catholic militia.
The chief psychologist at Bridgewater State Hospital, Dr. Joel Haycock, testified for the prosecution, saying Salvi knew what he was doing.
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. 1. A Bedham, Mass., jury found John C. Salvi IIIby CNB(center) guilty Monday of murdering two women and wounding five
other people in a shooting spree at abortion clinics. color.
(headshots) Nichols, Lowney.