Trial begins for man in deadly shooting

The native of India killed a Youngstown man during the shooting spree.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- A man convinced that someone hacked into his computer in an attempt to cripple society goes on trial today for a deadly shooting rampage during a seven-hour siege at Case Western Reserve University.
Jury selection is expected to take at least a week in the trial of Biswanath Halder, 65, who faces 338 felony counts, including aggravated murder and terrorism, arising from the attack.
If convicted, Halder could be sentenced to the death penalty. Cuyahoga County Prosecutor William Mason, who seldom appears in the courtroom, intends to try the case.
Norman Wallace, 30, a student from Youngstown, was shot dead May 9, 2003, shortly after Halder reportedly entered the winding, undulating hallways of the modern and artistic Peter B. Lewis Building of the university's Weatherhead School of Management.
2 wounded
A faculty member and another student were wounded. Witnesses saw a gunman in body armor, a wig, an army helmet and carrying two semiautomatic weapons and ammunition while shooting randomly. About 100 people hid while Cleveland police closed in.
A group of officers arrested Halder, a native of Calcutta, India, on the building's top floor. He was hospitalized briefly with gunshot wounds and remains in jail.
Assistant County Prosecutor Rick Bell said Halder attacked the business school because he believed a student computer lab employee had hacked into his Web site. Halder, who graduated from Case in 1999 with a master's degree in business administration, has repeatedly said information he considered vital to his own life's work was destroyed.
A university employee whom Halder unsuccessfully sued in 2001 was in the building during the shooting but escaped.
Psychologists have disagreed on whether Halder is delusional, mentally ill or just suffering from a personality disorder.
Trouble with attorneys
But Halder has consistently been at odds with his defense lawyers.
Halder asked Judge Peggy Foley Jones to disqualify his two court-appointed defense attorneys, Kevin Cafferkey and John Luskin. A previous team of defense lawyers asked to be taken off the case, citing inability to work with Halder.
"My attorneys have yet to do anything that I have asked them to do. My attorneys are part of the 'team prosecution' that wants to convict the defendant on all counts," Halder said in his motion to the judge, who denied it Wednesday, then Thursday denied Halder's oral request that he be allowed to represent himself.
Luskin said working with Halder has been "difficult, at best. He's fixated on what CWRU did to him."