ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 5, 1996 TAG: 9602050021
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: DEDHAM, MASS.
SOURCE: Associated Press
More than a year after two receptionists were killed in rifle attacks on two Boston-area abortion clinics, the man accused of murdering them goes on trial.
Jury selection was to begin today in Norfolk Superior Court in Massachusetts, where John C. Salvi III faces two counts of first-degree murder and five counts of assault with intent to murder.
Salvi was arrested in Virginia a day after the Brookline attacks; police say they caught him shooting through the windows of an abortion clinic in Norfolk, Va. No one was injured in that shooting.
In the 13 months since the shooting spree in Brookline, Salvi has interrupted hearings with rambling outbursts and attempts to hand out statements to reporters. Against his wishes, Salvi's attorneys tried to have him found incompetent to stand trial.
One defense psychiatrist said Salvi suffers from delusions. Salvi's attorney, J.W. Carney Jr., said his client was so obsessed with a perceived conspiracy against Catholics that he was unable to help in his own defense.
``He remains obsessed with a grand conspiracy against Catholics by members of the Ku Klux Klan, Mafia and Freemasons and is focused solely on his delusional ideas to solve the crisis,'' the lawyer said.
Norfolk Superior Court Judge Barbara Dortch-Okara wasn't convinced; she deemed Salvi fit to stand trial, and Carney plans to present an insanity defense.
Salvi said all along that he wanted to stand trial and that he would want the death penalty if convicted.
Friends and colleagues of the victims said they were hoping for a swift conviction.
``He is evil. I hope he'll never be allowed to be free,'' said Nicki Nichols Gamble, president of the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys joined forces to convince Dortch-Okara to ban television cameras and radio microphones from the trial.
Supreme Judicial Court Justice Herbert P. Wilkins upheld the ruling last week, citing Salvi's tendency to act up for the cameras and concern that witnesses shown on TV could become targets of further anti-abortion violence.
On the morning of Dec. 30, 1994, the attacker walked into one clinic and then the other, asking each time if he was in the right place before pulling a semiautomatic rifle from a duffle bag and opening fire.
Prosecutors say Salvi killed receptionist Shannon Lowney and injured three other people at Planned Parenthood before moving two miles up Beacon Street to Preterm Health Services, where receptionist Lee Ann Nichols was shot nine times and killed after begging for her life. Two other people were wounded before the gunman fled the building, firing at bystanders to clear an escape path.
Salvi had been living just north of Salisbury in Hampton, N.H., where he had worked as an apprentice hairdresser. His pickup truck had been a sore subject at the salon: Some customers were upset by the large image of a fetus posted in the rear window.
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