Jury recommends life term for killer

STAFF/WIRE REPORTS
CLEVELAND -- A jury recommended life in prison Sunday without parole for a former graduate student who killed another student and wounded two others during a seven-hour siege inside Case Western Reserve University's business school.
Biswanath Halder was convicted last month of killing Norman Wallace during the 2003 shooting spree and standoff.
Wallace, 30, was a native of Youngstown and a 1996 Youngstown State University graduate with a bachelor's degree in finance. He was working on a master's degree in business administration at Case.
Wallace was standing with two friends outside the cafeteria on the first floor of Case's Weatherhead School of Management when Halder walked up and shot him in the chest. The two friends took cover under a table and were not hurt.
Halder could have received the death penalty, but the jury rejected the ultimate sentence during two days of deliberations. Judge Peggy Foley Jones, who must formally decide Halder's fate, put off sentencing until Feb. 17.
Psychologists had testified that Halder is sane but delusional, and his attorneys argued that the life of the 65-year-old should be spared because he is mentally ill. Defense attorneys acknowledged he was the gunman.
Halder, originally from Calcutta, India, attacked the school armed with more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition because he believed a school computer lab employee hacked into his Web site devoted to helping fellow India natives form businesses, prosecutors said.
What happened Saturday
He didn't testify during the trial. But on Saturday, when the judge had started giving the jurors sentencing instructions, he stood up and said he wanted to speak.
In a handwritten letter, Halder told the judge he had wanted to take the stand but his lawyers objected. Judge Jones said he had given her the letter too late in the trial.
"I wanted to talk to the media since June 2003," Halder persisted. "The people who control me have prevented me from doing so."
His delusions included a belief that he would earn billions of dollars from his Web site and help change the world, his attorneys said.
Halder was found competent before his trial, and the judge ruled his attorneys could not argue mental illness as a defense.
However, they were allowed to make that argument during the sentencing phase.
During the trial, jurors saw surveillance video showing Halder, wearing a military helmet and flak jacket, walk up a university hallway and shoot Wallace to death as he was chatting with his friends.
The video also showed people running to escape or to find cover in classrooms, offices and computer labs.
Halder was captured by a police SWAT team on the fifth floor after a search that was complicated by the curving floors and walls of the building designed by architect Frank Gehry.
Halder was convicted of 196 counts, including aggravated murder, attempted murder, aggravated burglary and kidnapping.