Jurors find Noor Salman, widow of the Orlando nightclub shooter, not guilty on all charges
03/30/2018 7:36 am PDT
via WPTV
ORLANDO -- (WPTV) -- Jurors on Friday found the widow of the Orlando nightclub shooter who killed 49 people in 2016 not guilty on all charges.
Noor Salman was charged with obstruction and providing material support to a terrorist organization. She faces life in prison if convicted.
Salman was married to Omar Mateen when he attacked the gay nightclub. He was killed by police.
Jurors deliberated over three days before reaching their verdict. They asked several questions about the charges Salman faces and closely examined the statement she made to the FBI in the hours after the attack.
Prosecutors said Salman and her husband scouted out potential targets together — including Disney World's shopping and entertainment complex — and she knew he was buying ammunition for his AR-15 in preparation for a jihadi attack. She knew that he had a sick fascination with violent jihadi videos and an affinity for Islamic State group websites and gave him a "green light to commit terrorism," prosecutors said.
Defense attorneys described Salman as an easily manipulated woman with a low IQ. They said Salman, who was born in California to Palestinian parents, was abused by her husband, who cheated on her with other women and concealed much of his life from her.
Attorney Charles Swift argued there was no way Salman knew that Mateen would attack the Pulse nightclub because even he didn't know he would attack it until moments before the shooting. His intended target was the Disney Springs complex, prosecutors said.
"It's a horrible, random, senseless killing by a monster," Swift said during closing arguments. "But it wasn't preplanned. The importance to this case is that if he didn't know, she couldn't know."
Salman's statement to the FBI in the hours after the attack appeared to play a key role in the case. In the statement, Salman said over "the last two years, Omar talked to me about jihad."
FULL STORY: Jurors find Noor Salman, widow of the Orlando nightclub shooter, not guilty on all charges - WPTV