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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An Afghan refugee was discovered responsible Monday of first-degree homicide in one in every of three deadly shootings that shook Albuquerque’s Muslim group through the summer season of 2022.
Muhammad Syed faces life in jail for killing 41-year-old Aftab Hussein on July 26, 2022. He additionally will stand trial within the coming months within the different two slayings.
Throughout the trial, prosecutors introduced cellphone information that confirmed his telephone was within the space when the capturing occurred, and a ballistics professional testified that casings and projectiles recovered from the scene had been fired from a rifle that was discovered hidden below Syed’s mattress.
Protection attorneys argued that prosecutors had no proof that Syed was the one who pulled the set off. They mentioned others who lived in his dwelling might additionally entry his telephone, the automobile and the rifle.
The protection referred to as no witnesses; Syed tearfully declined to testify in his personal protection.
Prosecutors on Monday mentioned they have been happy that jurors agreed it was a deliberate killing. Nevertheless, they acknowledged that no testimony through the weeklong trial nor any court docket filings addressed a attainable motive or detailed any interactions that Syed might need had with Hussein earlier than the killing.
“We weren’t in a position to uncover something that we might point out can be a motive that will clarify this,” Deputy District Lawyer David Waymire mentioned exterior the courthouse. “As finest we are able to inform, this could possibly be a case of a serial killer the place there’s a motive recognized solely to them and never one thing that we are able to actually perceive.”
Protection attorneys mentioned the conviction can be appealed as soon as the opposite two trials are full. They too mentioned a motive has but to be uncovered.
The three ambush-style killings occurred over the course of a number of days, leaving authorities scrambling to find out if race or faith might need been behind the crimes. It was not lengthy earlier than the investigation shifted away from attainable hate crimes to what prosecutors described to jurors because the “willful and really deliberate” actions of one other member of the Muslim group.
Syed, who speaks Pashto and required the assistance of translators all through the trial, settled within the U.S. together with his household a number of years earlier than the killings. Prosecutors described him throughout earlier court docket hearings as having a violent historical past. His public defenders argued that earlier allegations of home violence by no means resulted in convictions.
Syed is also accused of killing Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, a 27-year-old city planner who was gunned down Aug. 1, 2022, whereas taking his night stroll, and Naeem Hussain, who was shot 4 days later as he sat in his automobile exterior a refugee resettlement company on town’s south aspect.
Muhammad Afzaal Hussain’s older brother, Muhammad Imtiaz Hussain, was there Monday to listen to the decision. He has been following the circumstances carefully and like others locally is troubled that there’s nonetheless no reply as to why his brother and the others have been focused.
A pupil chief on the College of New Mexico who was energetic in politics and later labored for town of Española, Muhammad Afzaal Hussain had a brilliant future, his brother mentioned. They’d come to the USA from Pakistan for academic and financial alternatives.
He mentioned the life that they had deliberate was simply beginning to come to fruition when his brother was killed.
“It was an enormous loss,” he mentioned.
Police additionally recognized Syed because the suspect within the killing of one other Muslim man in 2021, however no expenses have been filed in that case.
Authorities issued a public plea for assist following the third killing in the summertime of 2022. They shared images of a automobile believed to be concerned within the crimes, leading to ideas that led to Syed.
Syed denied involvement within the killings after being stopped greater than 100 miles (160 kilometers) from Albuquerque. He instructed authorities he was on his technique to Texas to discover a new dwelling for his household, saying he was involved concerning the killings in Albuquerque.
The decide prohibited prosecutors from immediately introducing as proof statements Syed made to a detective whereas being questioned. Protection attorneys argued that Syed’s rights have been violated as a result of the detective, by way of an interpreter, didn’t adequately inform Syed of his proper to a court-appointed legal professional.
In the course of the trial, prosecutors gave jurors a rundown of what occurred the evening of the primary killing: Hussein parked at his condo advanced at round 10 p.m. and had simply stepped out of his automobile together with his keys nonetheless in his hand when gunfire erupted.
“He stood no probability,” prosecutor Jordan Machin mentioned throughout closing arguments. Machin mentioned Syed had been mendacity in wait and that he continued to shoot at the same time as Hussein lay on the bottom.
Officers discovered Hussein with a number of wounds that stretched from his neck all the way down to his toes. Investigators testified that a number of the high-caliber rounds went by way of his physique and pierced the automotive.
Prosecutors confirmed images of Hussein’s bullet-riddled automotive and mentioned the sufferer was killed almost immediately.
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