Guilty plea in filmmaker’s death
A man accused of killing and dismembering an Afghan filmmaker in what he had said was anger over Sept. 11 pleaded guilty to manslaughter this week in a deal that will send him to prison for at least 15 years.
Nathan Powell, 40, who had planned to defend himself by saying he was traumatized by the terrorist attacks, told a judge in Mineola, N.Y., that he intentionally killed Jawed Wassel on Oct. 3, 2001.
Powell had faced murder charges in the slaying of Wassel, a 42-year-old Afghan emigre who spent six years making “FireDancer,” a film about Afghan refugees in New York.
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