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Jurors to begin deliberating Nasser Hamad verdict today
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
After hearing from more than 30 witnesses last week, jurors will hear closing arguments today and begin to deliberate whether Nasser Hamad is guilty of two counts of aggravated murder and several counts of attempted murder.
Hamad, 48, is accused of killing Josh Haber, 19, and Joshua Williams, 20, and injuring April Trent-Vokes, 42, Bryce Hendrickson, 19, and John Shively, 17, by firing a handgun at them Feb. 25.
They were shot after Trent-Vokes drove them to Hamad’s house on state Route 46 in Howland in an ongoing feud involving Hamad’s girlfriend, Tracy Hendrickson, 47.
Jurors were selected over nine days starting Oct. 11 and started hearing testimony Oct. 23.
Testimony consisted of more than a dozen witnesses who passed through the busy Route 46 corridor near the Eastwood Mall complex that day and saw some part of the confrontation that began near Hamad’s house with a fistfight and ended near the road with gunfire.
Also testifying were the first police officers to the scene, one officer collected physical evidence, state crime-lab agents who processed physical evidence, Howland police detectives, two survivors, Hamad’s girlfriend and Hamad.
Through their questioning of witnesses, prosecutors have tried to show that Hamad had numerous options short of using lethal force after five people arrived at his house to confront him over vulgar Facebook messages.
Hamad and his girlfriend described in great detail the harassment they say they received in the months leading up to the shootings from Tracy Hendrickson’s family and others. Hamad told jurors during two hours of testimony that he defended himself from the five during a fistfight and then with his gun because he feared they were going to kill him.
The evidence indicated that only Hamad’s gun was fired that afternoon, that no other gun was found at the scene, and that the five did have one knife.
Hamad told jurors he heard repeated comments from the five suggesting that they had a gun and that Bryce Hendrickson “lunged” at him with a knife while Hamad stood near the van with his handgun. Hamad also testified that he feared that someone else with a firearm not in the van might be nearby waiting to shoot him. Hamad suffered no gunshot wounds.
Bryce Hendrickson did not testify at the trial because he was found dead Sept. 30 at a home in McDonald of an apparent drug overdose.
If Hamad is found guilty of certain charges, he would be eligible for the death penalty.
If he is found eligible, a second phase of the trial would begin this week to determine whether the aggravating circumstances of killing two or more people outweigh mitigating evidence Hamad would present. The jury would then decide whether to give the death penalty.