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Jury convicts suspect in hit-and-run rampage
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -- After four days of deliberation, a Cumberland County jury found hit-and-run rampage suspect Abdullah El-Amin Shareef guilty of eight charges, including first-degree murder and attempted murder, for a hit-and-run rampage that encompassed parts of three counties in 2004.Shareef, 31, of Raeford, will be sentenced on Thursday. He faces the death penalty. Authorities said Shareef stole a city-owned van in Fayetteville on April 14, 2004, hit and injured three men -- Robert Fortier, David McCaskill and Gary Weller -- in Fayetteville, then ran over Lonel Bass in Linden, killing him. Shareef abandoned the van, took Bass' pickup truck and continued north, authorities said, running down Seth Thompson in Harnett County before crashing the truck in Fuquay-Varina, where he was arrested. Jurors found Shareef guilty of the first-degree murder of Bass. He was found guilty of the attempted first-degree murders of McCaskill and Weller. Shareef was found guilty of two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury stemming from his attacks against McCaskill and Weller. Jurors found Shareef guilty of misdemeanor assault with deadly weapon against Fortier, but not guilty of the attempted first-degree murder of Fortier. In addition to the murder and assault convictions, Shareef was also found guilty of two counts of felony possession of a stolen vehicle and one count of felonious larceny. Shareef showed little reaction when the verdict was read. Victims and their family members hugged and cried following the verdict. Shareef pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. His attorneys have said he suffered from untreated paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the crimes. Posted by: Fred 2010-03-18 |
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