Pittsburgh Lawyer Guilty in 5 Deaths

A jury convicted a man Wednesday of killing five people last year in what prosecutors called a racially motivated shooting rampage.

Richard Baumhammers, a 35-year-old non-practicing immigration attorney, was also convicted of eight counts of ethnic intimidation in the April 28, 2000, rampage that left a sixth victim paralyzed. The jury took three hours to convict him.

Baumhammers, who is white, shot his Jewish neighbor, two men from India, two Asian men and one black man, stopping twice to vandalize synagogues. Prosecutors said he was trying to make a statement against nonwhite immigration.

Baumhammers could receive the death penalty. Jurors will return today to start hearing testimony in the penalty phase of the trial.

His attorneys admitted Baumhammers was the shooter but said he had struggled with delusions for 10 years and did not know his actions were wrong.

Witnesses said Baumhammers appeared calm as he shot victims he found at an Indian grocery store, a Chinese restaurant and a karate studio.

Psychiatrists testified that Baumhammers was tormented by the belief that the FBI and CIA were dogging him, that the family maid was a spy and that his skin was peeling off.

“The courageous explanation is that the disease affected his ability to tell right from wrong,” defense attorney William Difenderfer said.

Prosecutor Edward Borkowski acknowledged Baumhammers was mentally ill but said he was “controlled, deliberate, calculating and selective” in picking victims, avoiding attention and eluding police.

Borkowski said Baumhammers started reading racist and anti-immigration literature in 1999.

The prosecution said it would have been difficult for someone who was highly delusional to manage Baumhammers’ trips to other countries before the killings.

He had traveled to his parents’ homeland of Latvia and to Japan, Thailand and France on a monthly allowance from his parents of $2,000 to $4,000.