National Roundup . . .

Massachusetts
Prosecutor: Teen who killed knew right from wrong
SALEM, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts teenager who raped and killed his high school math teacher “knew right from wrong and could choose right from wrong,” a prosecutor said Monday during closing arguments in the teen’s murder trial.

But a defense attorney for Philip Chism said the then-14-year-old was in “the throes of mental illness” when he killed 24-year-old Colleen Ritzer shortly after he moved to Massachusetts from Clarksville, Tennessee.
Jurors began deliberations Monday afternoon.

Prosecutors say Chism strangled his algebra teacher and stabbed her with a box cutter in a Danvers High School bathroom in 2013, then used a recycling bin to bring her body into nearby woods. Jurors were shown chilling surveillance video from the school that shows Ritzer walking into the bathroom, then Chism following her wearing a hood and putting on gloves.

Chism’s lawyers admitted he killed Ritzer but said he suffered from severe mental illness.

Defense attorney Denise Regan told jurors the evidence is clear that Chism suffered from a psychotic disorder and likely had since he was very young. She cited a history of mental illness in Chism’s family.

“When Philip Chism followed Miss Ritzer into that bathroom, he was not himself. He was totally and absolutely responding to the terrible command of the hallucinations in his head,” Regan said.

Prosecutor Kate MacDougall graphically detailed the rape and murder. Ritzer was “stripped, battered, brutalized and violated,” MacDougall said.

MacDougall rejected the defense claims of psychosis and said Chism knew what he was doing.

“There was no disorganized thinking, there was no chaos, there were no voices,” she said.

MacDougall acknowledged the difficulty of believing that a 14-year-old could commit such a brutal crime.

“I am not going to stand here and tell you there is nothing wrong with Philip Chism. How could I?” MacDougall said.

But she also said Chism knew right from wrong.

“Doing something so awful does not make you crazy,” she said.

Chism, now 16, is being tried as an adult.

California
Mosque graffiti investigated as hate crimes
HAWTHORNE, Calif. (AP) — Vandals spray-painted graffiti about Jesus at two mosques in the Southern California city of Hawthorne and left a device that looked like a hand grenade in one of the driveways, leading police to investigate both incidents as hate crimes.

The vandalism and other recent attacks against mosques and Muslims in California come after a couple who federal officials say were inspired by Islamist extremists killed 14 people at a holiday luncheon in San Bernardino on Dec. 2.

Some Muslims in Southern California and beyond have worried about the potential for reprisals, while leaders of various faiths have called for tolerance.

On Sunday, a bomb squad was called and the area around the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Baitus-Salaam Mosque was evacuated after the device was discovered around 6:30 a.m. Sunday, police said in a statement.

Investigators determined the device was a plastic replica of a hand grenade. The word “Jesus” was sprayed in white paint on the mosque’s fence.

Officers received another call that the phrase “Jesus is the way” was spray-painted in front of the Islamic Center of Hawthorne. Police and the FBI are investigating the vandalism as hate crimes.

“This type of behavior is born out of ignorance and fear, and we as members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community ... we respond with peaceful dialogue,” said Ahsan M. Khan, a chapter president of the community.

“It’s through peaceful dialogue that we can hopefully see less of this type of hate crime,” he said.

In neighboring San Bernardino County, a 40-year-old man accused of pulling a knife and threatening a Muslim woman at a car wash in the city of Chino Hills was expected in court this week.

Daniel Senteno was arrested Thursday on suspicion of making criminal threats and brandishing a weapon. Prosecutors also were expected to pursue hate crime charges, sheriff’s spokeswoman Cindy Bachman told the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin newspaper.

Senteno was held in lieu of $75,000 bail. It wasn’t immediately known if he has a lawyer.

In nearby Palm Springs, a fire that authorities said was intentionally set damaged a mosque Friday. They arrested a 23-year-old man in connection with the fire and booked him on suspicion of commission of a hate crime, arson, maliciously setting a fire and burglary.
The fire at the Islamic Center of Palm Springs was contained to the small building’s front lobby, and no one was injured.

Florida
Judge: Man not competent for trial in bomb plot
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge has determined that a Florida man accused of sending bomb-making plans to an FBI informant for an alleged attack on the 9/11 anniversary is not mentally competent enough to stand trial.

Twenty-year-old Joshua Goldberg is charged with distributing information relating to explosives and weapons of mass destruction. At a hearing Monday in Jacksonville federal court, a judge ordered him to complete a more thorough four-month evaluation.

Earlier this month, a psychologist found Goldberg not mentally sound enough for trial. She said Goldberg suffers from a mental disorder that impairs his ability to understand what is happening.

The FBI says Goldberg called for an attack on a contest for drawings of the Prophet Muhammad in Garland, Texas, and boasted about helping plan attacks on synagogues in Australia. Goldberg was arrested in September.


Texas
Plumber sues after truck seen in Jihadist photo
HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas plumber is suing a truck dealer after a vehicle emblazoned with his company’s name and phone number — and carrying gun-toting fighters — appeared in a photo circulated by purported Islamic extremists.
Mark Oberholtzer filed the lawsuit against Charlie Thomas Ford Ltd., of Houston, last Wednesday. Oberholtzer wants more than $1 million to cover the damage to his company, Mark-1 Plumbing in Texas City, since the photo was circulated on social media in 2014.
Oberholtzer says he’s received death threats and over 1,000 phone calls since the photo appeared online.
The lawsuit says the dealer didn’t remove the Mark-1 decals as promised before shipping the vehicle to Turkey.
The AP has not been able to verify the photo.