Defense Witnesses in the Noor Salman Case

Posted on by Thor

There is some sensitive content and disturbing details included
within. If you feel you may be affected, please do not read this post.

 After the prosecution rested its case, the defense had a day in which they presented witnesses in the N case. The first witness was Omar Mateen‘s friend Nemo. I did a rather good sketch of him but unfortunately Judge Byron insisted that the sketch must not be published to protect the witnesses identity. Omar would use Nemo as an excuse when he went out to meet older women with whom he had affairs. On June 11, 2016, the evening of the attack, Omar’s mom became concerned since her son had promised to stop by her house and he never showed up. Noor texted Omar that he should use the excuse that he was with Nemo. Omar’s mom however ended up meeting Nemo’s mom at the mosque that night and the mom explained that her son Nemo was away at a medical college in the Caribbean. Omar’s mom kept trying to reach her son on the night of the attack. Nemo would work out with Omar at the gym where Omar would brag about the affairs he was having.

Two women took the stand in short order. I sketched both but later had to surrender the sketches to a U.S. Marshal. The first woman knew Omar for a year and a half. She said she didn’t know Omar was married but did know that he had a child. When asked if she had a romantic relationship with him she paused. The defense showed her Internet messages between herself and Omar and she then admitted that she did make out with him once in her car near his guard booth.The second woman met Omar on the dating site, Plenty of Fish. She invited Omar to her apartment and seemed more open about the fact that she had a relationship with him. The relationship ended when Omar told her that he could not be with her because she was Jewish. His family would not approve. There was high tension in the courtroom because the women had to admit their romantic affairs right in from of Noor who was seated about five yards away.

Dali Achmed started to cry when she saw her friend Noor at the defense table. She wore a hijab. She talked to Noor on June 11, 2016 on the phone. Noor was excited about her planned trip to California. She would always talk about her child. The two women grown up together but had grown apart as they grew older. Of course loving on opposite coasts made staying close harder.

Laurie Jaber was a friend of Noor’s. She had been a brides maid at her wedding to Omar Mateen. They last spoke on June 8, 2016 the day that Noor was approved to get her Florida drivers license. She spoke about how Noor took a job at a grocery store as a cashier. She didn’t like having to deal with the constant math of handing back change so she asked for a transfer. She started working on the docks with inventory working much harder for less pay.

Officer Steve Brown was considered by Omar to be a mentor and a bit of a brother figure. He knew Omar to be a rather conservative in his ways, but was a member of the Democratic party because Democrats could accept his religion. Omar joked around that he liked the homosexual community because they were like pit bulls who stood up for themselves. Defense attorney Charles Swift began asking questions bout Steve’s own views about homosexuals. He towed the line, but then Charles produced Internet messages between Steve and Omar. The officer read the messages and didn’t remember making those statement but they were right there on paper. It was clear that his comments were derogatory. The testimony was probably intended to show that Omar didn’t not attach the Pulse nightclub because he hated homosexuals. Knowing that officers were joking with a mass murderer before the massacre isn’t very reassuring. Attacking the homophobic officer didn’t really help the case, but it was quite dramatic.

Local media seemed to deliver a single homologous caricatured view of the proceedings from inside the courtroom. After the Casey Anthony case they banded together to settle on a single viewpoint when a case gets big. This single mindedness has the obvious drawback of limiting options when covering a story. A very conservative blogger sat next to me for a few minutes in the media room and was escorted out of the building by a US Marshal. The day before she harassed relative of Noor as they walked back to their cars. Judge Byron wrote a media release stating that she could not return to the courthouse. She came back the next day anyway and had to be escorted from the building. Since I was not permitted in the courtroom, I identified with her Facebook Live broadcasts in which she claimed her first amendment rights were being violated. However I needed to stick to every demand of the court so I  could best document the case from as close as I could get. Even closed doors can be a creative challenge.

A Day Without a Jury or Defendant in the Noor Salman Trail

Posted on by Thor

There is some sensitive content and disturbing details included
within. If you feel you may be affected, please do not read this post.

 One day of the trial had no jury or defendant. Noor Salman had the day off. The courtroom 4B rules were relaxed and I was permitted to sit inside courtroom 4B as a member of the public. I was issued a blue slip and told to sit on the court right general public spectator benches.  The day was spent going over a laundry list of what the jury must consider when coming to a verdict. The jury would have to be  unanimous on the charge that Noor aided and abetted her husband Omar Mateen in the mass murder committed at Pulse Nightclub. The prosecution went over a list of what items would be considered aiding and abetting.

1. Noor texted Omar on the night of the attack and told him to tell his mom that he is out with Nemo. This cover story made it seem like Noor was covering for her husband’s actions.

2. The “casing” activities at City Place in West Palm Beach  on June 4-5, 2016. The timeline for this activity was later debunked with cell phone data. There was not enough time for the casing to have occurred. It was still a strange trip to take very late at night with their son Zac who usually went to bed by 9 PM.

3. A May 31, 2016 purchase of ammunition for Omar’s work firearm at Walmart Supercenter. Noor and her son Zac were on that shopping trip. The prosecution wanted to imply that she encouraged the purchase. Omar’s work firearm was not used in the Pulse Nightclub attack.

4. The fact that Noor knew about the new rifle gun case in the family car, because she didn’t want it in the car when she took her driving test. The prosecution claimed that she was getting a Florida driver’s license for the first time because she knew Omar would not be around to drive after the Pulse attack, and the defense said she wanted to be able to drive to bring her son to school.

5. On June 8, 2016, four days before the attack, Noor got her license, shopped at bass Pro shop where Omar got Ammo, went to the Florida Mall where Omar bought her some very expensive jewelry. The woman who sold them the ring noticed a tear in Noor’s eye. Was she happy or sad? The purchase of the over $7000 ring was considered an enticement to lie or
at least not tip off authorities to what Omar was about to do.They then went to Disney Springs, an Arab Restaurant and a mosque. It was on this night that the prosecutors though Noor and Omar went to Pulse but there wasn’t enough time to drive around for 20 minutes.

6. The excessive spending in the month of June leading up to the attack.

7. Omar made Noor a beneficiary of his savings and checking accounts in the event of his death.

The prosecution would have to prove to the jury that Noor knew of Omar’s intent to mass murder innocent civilians with his act of Jihad. They wanted to stress that she was at a repeated series of very important junctures leading up to the attack.  Going to the gun range was a red flag for prosecutors. She told no one about the purchase of the rifle.

The defense countered that the prosecution provided no evidence that Noor knew what “the Act” was going to be. There is no evidence that she supports ISIS. During the course of the trial holes were poked in each of Noor’s six statements written by FBI agent and signed by her. Since she and Omar never went to Pulse before, it seemed to imply that FBI agents had planted information in her testimony.

The afternoon was spent going over the instructions for the jury. Each paragraph was meticulously picked apart to be sure both prosecutors and the defense were satisfied with the wording.

Noor did not plan to testify and the jury would be instructed not to consider this as a presumption of guilt. The jurors would have to weigh the testimony from each witness. They would have to consider the circumstances and weather the witness was credible or reliable. They would need to consider the witnesses age, and training.

Omar provided material support to the Islamic state. Did Noor intend to aid in the material support of ISIS? The prosecution wanted to point out that aiding and abetting can be done with a happy heart, or a sense of foreboding. Did she intend to bring about the crime? On the count of Obstruction of justice, did Noor mislead FBI agents with the statement she made on the morning after the Pulse Nightclub attack. Dis she knowingly leave things out of her statements? Once someone chooses to testify, they must do so truthfully. The venue for the obstruction of justice charge was Central Florida. Since Noor lived in Fort Pierce, the prosecutors needed to prove that her statement were intended to mislead investigators in Central Florida.

The instructions acted as a framework for the jury’s deliberations.

Omar and Noor’s Web of Finances

Posted on by Thor

There is some sensitive content and disturbing details included
within. If you feel you may be affected, please do not read this post.

 In the morning, Nemo‘s mother took the stand. She could not be sketched. FBI agent Jeff Etter is a computer forensic examiner. He graduated from Troy University and works out of the Miami Fort Lauderdale area. He analyzed the computers inside the home of Omar Mateen and Noor Salman. Both computers showed activity of a program called Sea Cleaner which removes data. Even if data had been removed there would still be artifacts until the data was overwritten by something new. Another way data could be hidden is via Chrome Incognito Mode. Omar’s password was Ocean1986.

Etter testified the date on one of the
computers was modified to reflect all of its context were dated a day
behind. It was established that much of the Internet browsing was
done in “incognito mode,” so that the Internet history wasn’t recorded,
but many visits to radical websites were recorded. If Omar was trying to hide his tracks, he was lazy about it. The endless searched to Jihadi web sites were conducted late at night by Mateen.

Exhibit 14 was submitted into evidence. It was a photo of Omar Mateen and Noor Salman  smiling together at a shooting range. The photograph was recovered from the couples apartment.

Shelly M. Morgan was a witness who was the assistant bracnch manager at PNC Bank on the day Omar Mateen and Noor Salman went in to put her as the beneficiary of his checking and savings account in case of his death. She described her meeting with the couple. There was some discussion of having Noor as the joint account holder, but her outstanding college loans would have put the account in jeopardy. This action by the couple implied that there was a premeditated attempt to take care of Noor after Omar committed his violent act of Jihad in Orlando.

Rose Von Brezel a Kay Jewelers manager, helped sell Omar and Noor an engagement ring and a diamond wedding band for $8,623 on June 6, 2016 just 6 days before the deadly shooting. Rose remembered seeing tears in Noor’s eyes. She couldn’t tell if this was sadness or happiness. Salman seemed focused on buying just the right ring in the style she likes while Mateen seemed agitated. A store surveillance video showed the couple at the counter and their son Zac took a step back and then another step back as they discussed the purchase. He then ran off into the mall and Omar had to chase him down. Despite the serious nature of the testimony it was hard not to laugh at their son’s antics.

Later in the trial a photo was shown of Noor from Facebook showing that she already had a diamond wedding ring. These purchases therefor seemed to further support the idea that Omar was arranging items that Noor could later sell to help survive after he was killed in his act of Jihad.

T.J. Sypniewski was the Special Agent who assisted Ricardo Enriques in the interrogation of Noor Salman. He has been with the FBI for 22 years and does polygraph interrogations. About 8:45 AM on June 12, 2016 he started his interview with Noor Salman at the FBI headquarters. He didn’t notice Noor sleeping on the floor which had been noticed by FBI agent Enriquez. T.J. introduced himself and decided that he would break the news that Noor’s Husband Omar Mateen was dead. She looked away and didn’t say anything. She didn’t ask questions.

He began asking questions. She had attended  college, but didn’t graduate. She brought up religion saying that she and Mateen were not extremist but somewhere in the middle. he noted that she was actively listening understanding what he was saying what he said. Her son was getting restless so the agent suggested that she have a relative pick him up.Mustafa picked up her son and she remained to answer questions.

Noor explained that her husband could not have died in a violent act because he had just paid the bills. he also had just purchased air plane tickets to San Francisco. She could not have known what he was going to do because she had just bought him a fathers day present. She denied going to a shooting range, but when told that the FBI would be going to all the shooting ranges in the area, she lowered her head and admitted that she had gone once. She also indicated that she was never physically abused by her husband.

Three statements were read, and Salman said they were true. “I brought ammunition with my husband one time for the handgun.” she said. The interview ended at 10:15AM on June 12, 2016. She did not ask to go home according to the agent. At 10:30 Am Noor signed the consent forms which stated her Miranda rights. The defense wanted to imply that agent Enriquez had been interviewing Noor for two hours before she was given Miranda forms to sign. The fact that the interviews were not recorded was covered by the defense. The agent stated that it was common practice to only record interviews after someone has been arrested. Since Noor was not under arrest, they could not record the interview. He has never recorded an interview outside of arrest. It isn’t the FBI’s policy to do so.

Agent T.J. Sypniewski was not a case agent in the Pulse Nightclub massacre. After this day, he had no other involvement. It was established that Noor was eating lunch, Jimmy Johns between the two interviews.

FBI Supervisory Special Agent Duel Valentine has worked in the Counter Terrorism unit for 7 years. He sat in with Special Agent Getz and Noor Salman of a short time on the morning of June 12, 2016. He was just there to sit with them. Noor approached him and wanted to get her husbands death certificate. With the certificate she felt she could get certain debts waved. She said she tried to stop him. She was concerned that she couldn’t get a job after the attack and that she would have to raise her son alone. She didn’t know what to tell her son about what his father had done.

Noor Salman’s Defense Opening Statements

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Lisa Moreno opened for the defense. (Statements as given by prosecution, may or may not be actual fact as revealed by the court hearing and jury deliberation.) Moreno began by talking about Noor Salman as a mother. She spoke of Mateen’s habitual cheating on his wife, about how he dated other women, usually older. He used his childhood friend Nemo as an alibi for these affairs. Salman was described as a loving mother, taking care of her son. She was so caring that her entire home was child-proofed. Noor was born a Californian Muslim but was not really religious. She was a special needs student, though she managed to get an an associates degree. For a while she served as a kindergarten aide and later worked at Kmart. She only scored 84% on her IQ test, which places her with the bottom 20% of the population.

She claims no support for, or knowledge of ISIS. All of her internet searches were just shopping or to read romance novels. She is described by those who know her as, “Simple, sweet, and trusting.” She and Mateen met online, only had a few month relationship and after marriage she was isolated from her family, he controlled all of their finances. She only ever met his family and did things with them, never his friends. Moreno described Mateen as a misogynist, cheater, loser, and a wanna-be-cop.

Mateen claimed he was friends with the brothers from the Boston Marathon bombing, that he experimented with bombs, and that he killed a Jewish drug dealer, though the defense says that all of these claims were outright lies. The FBI interviewed him three different times, he admitted to making disturbing remarks in 2014 but nothing was done. He had sworn allegiance to two opposing Islamic groups. Moreno repeatedly referred to Salman’s husband as a monster.

The reason Noor learned to drive and got her license is because she had recently enrolled her son in preschool. When they went to the Walmart in Vero Beach, they split up, Mateen going to sporting goods, and Salman going to get other things. On June 2, Mateen received a letter from the FDLE and the Criminal Service Standards Office letting him know he could be part of a training program to become a police officer. So, that is why he was okay with spending so much money. The bank warned Mateen not to put Salman on the account because it could become susceptible to her student debt, so instead he named her as the beneficiary. As far as Salman knew all the trips to different locations were were family trips, not “casing” or “scouting” trips.

June 11, 2018 was a normal day for Salman. Mateen went to work, came home, and at 3 PM they took their son to McDonald’s. Her husband then purchased the three tickets to California to see her mother and uncles.  

Nemo, Mateen’s childhood friend, called the FBI to testify when he learned of the attack. Saying Mateen was always cheating with older women he met through online services like Plenty of Fish and Arab Lounge. After Mateen left for Pulse, Salman called her uncle and her friend in California to let them know of her future visit back home.  She went to Walmart to get a father’s gift and toys for her child, then she ordered Applebees to go because she thought her sister-in-law might stop over to pick up a toy.

After leaving House of Blues, Mateen googled downtown nightclubs and pulled directions up for Eve Nightclub and drove there but then looked up Pulse and went there instead. At 2:30 AM Salman texted Mateen, “Where are you?” and tried to call. At 4:00 AM she was woken up by Mateen’s mother saying that he said he would stop by after prayer but then he never came.

Salman texts Mateen:

  • “Where are you?”
  • Mateen, “Everything OK?”
  • “Your mother is worried and so am I.” Reminds him he has to work in the morning.
  • Mateen, “You heard what happened?”
  • “What happened?”
  • Mateen, “I love you babe.”
  • “Habibi, what happened? Your mom said you were to come over but you never did.”
  • Salman calls Mateen.

At that point the Fort Pierce police (Lieutenant William Hall) call her out of her apartment so she didn’t get a chance to look up what had happened. Moreno claims the police coerce her and take unrecorded statements. From 4:30 am until midnight they questions her, she never asks for a lawyer and even consents to a home search and a polygraph test. An expert will confirm that she scores 98% in being highly susceptible to coercion. The police utilized the Reed method of interrogation and coercion. FBI told her that if she lied that she would go to jail and never get to see her son again.

The defense claims that all of the statements initialed by Salman are provably false – that the GPS tracking in evidence never took them casing around Pulse before June 12, 2016. Mateen had not showed her Pulse online or at the site and told her it was his target. Forensics don’t show that. The defense cushioned each statement with, “They got her to say….” The polygrapher wrote three statements in his own hand that she read, agreed to, and initialed. When they let her go, she went to Mississippi, eventually making her way to California, reporting every day to the FBI so they knew where she was and what she was doing. On June 20, 2016 she thanked the FBI for all they had done for her. 7 months later she was indicted and arrested.

What evidence should the jury see in the Noor Salman trial?

Posted on by Thor

After the jury was selected, lawyers and the judge held a closed session in which they tried to tie up some loose ends about what evidence should be presented in court on the opening day of the trial with the jury. In contention were graphic audio and video recordings. The defense wants to limit the amount of violent content which might re-traumatize families of victims, as well as survivors, who come to the trial. There is so much police body cam footage that it all can’t be seen. The defense felt that all this evidence is against Omar Mateen, the gunman, and that it has little to do with Noor Salman.

This jury trial is going to great lengths to protect the identities of jurors and witnesses. One witness, nicknamed Nemo, will never have his real name associated with his friend Omar Mateen. Nemo was apparently used as an excuse when Omar wanted to cheat on his wife. Motion 287 was raised by the defense and it precluded the prosecutors from making certain allegations in their opening statements. If a founding statement cannot be proven throughout the trial it should not go in the opening statements. Judge Paul G. Byron however denied this limitation. He feels that the jurors should be able to decide for themselves if the statements are proven. Any opening statement is not to be considered as evidence.

Points of contention were:

  • Making the statement that Omar Mateen was targeting a gay club.
  • The notion that Omar Mateen visited the Pulse website on June 10, 2016. The IP addresses were not found or verified. He logged out of Google on June 10, 2016 at about the same time as Noor claimed that he showed her the Pulse website. He may have switched to Chrome incognito which hides suspicious web activity.
  • Mateen’s purchase of ammunition at Walmart Supercenter while with Noor.
  • The fact that Noor was put on the bank accounts just prior to the attack.
  •  In the final days, Mateen’s expenses far outweighed his income.
  • A cellphone call by Angel Colon wounded in the bathroom of Pulse was not allowed. “They are shooting up the place.” Angel shouted. The call was thrown out because it would already be clearly established that there were hostages in the bathroom.

Two 911 calls from victims inside the Pulse Nightclub
bathroom were discussed. The defense argued that those calls were hearsay and should not be heard by the jury. 64 individual pieces of
evidence are to be admitted into evidence. There will be testimony from 6
responding officers and witnesses from all aspects of that evening’s response to the
attack at the club.

A phone conversation with Omar Mateen
stated that he will not harm African Americans although he had already
shot and killed African Americans on the dance floor. The fact that
Pulse is a home and and safe place for the LGBTQ community was
not considered to be the crux of the case by Judge Paul G. Byron.  A 27 second long call with
Mateen in which he mentioned a fake suicide vest and explosives was
allowed into evidence. All police traffic, car cams, and body cam
footage already submitted was allowed to be shown in court. All Walmart Super Center receipts that showed joint spending on such things as Ammo and house hold items was allowed.

Noor Salman Federal Court hearing.

Posted on by Thor

Noor Salman, the wife of Omar Mateen, the Pulse Nightclub shooter was in Federal Court in Orlando on Thursday for a pre-trial hearing. Federal prosecutors say that she knew that her husband was going to attack Pulse on the evening of June 12, 2016. This hearing was set to decide which evidence could be allowed in the court case which should begin March 1, 2018. The hearing was set to  decide what evidence jurors could see or not see at the trial.

The defense wants to include testimony from a man nicknamed Nemo who is a friend of Omar’s, and he was used as an alibi when Omar was cheating on his wife. Salman told the FBI that her husband went to have dinner with Nemo on the night of the attack. Prosecutors argue that Noor came up with the Nemo story. She send a text to her husband on the night of the attack, saying, “If ur mom calls, say Nemo invited you out and Noor wants to stay home.” Was this a cover story, or was it a statement based on what she believed to be true? Nemo plans to plead the 5th amendment id asked to take the stand.

Dr. Bruce Frumkin a forensic clinical psychologist from Miami who specializes in Miranda rights and false confessions made statement to the effect that Salman was intellectually impaired. The prosecutors feel that she is in no way impaired and that statements she made on the evening of June 12 are accurate and incriminating. The doctor will be allowed to testify in March.

The defense had no objections  to evidence of the purchase of a rifle and ammunition at Walmart, or the purchase of airplane tickets and a $7000 diamond ring for Noor. She was signed up for Women, Infants, and
Children (WIC)  a special supplemental nutrition program for low income families that provides Federal grants to States for supplemental foods,
health care referrals, and nutrition education for low-income women. The defense argued that showing that Noor benefited from the horrific Pulse Nightclub attack would anger the jury. The judge countered that in arson cases, there are certain red flags such as the purchase of life insurance. Mateen might have made these large purchases knowing he would not be around to pay off the maxed out credit card. Mateen and Salman’s bank account records will be allowed in court.

The defense wanted to exclude video that showed the couple and their child driving to Disney Springs which is alleged to have been a possible target for the attack. The 6 minute video was shown but only lawyers and the judge could see the screens. The video also showed the couple going to a mosque that evening. The prosecutors were concerned that the child was kept up so late. Defense attorney Swift argued that they obviously aren’t familiar with Ramadan, were worshipers fast all day and then stay up late eating and gathering together. “This is not a case against Islam” judge Byron stated. I found it interesting that the defense has a new attorney who wears a hijab which is a veil worn by some Muslim women in the presence of adult males outside of their immediate family. This is a visual clue that made it seem like Noors’ religion is under attack. The judge stated that a church is just a church and the evidence would be allowed.

The defense argued that all the video shot inside the nightclub on the night of the attack was prejudicial and should not be allowed. There is so much police video footage, that it seems redundant to show it all. He said that no one denies that what happened that night was horrible, but that evidence should be limited to what Salman did to aid and abet that attack. “Lets have Ms. Salman’s trial not Omar Mateens’.” said her attorney Charles Swift.

The defense also wanted photos of the couple smiling at a gun range removed as evidence, arguing that it was inflammatory. The judge however said that he has photos of himself at a gun range and that such photos are common. If a juror were upset by a photo of someone smiling at a gun range, they would be weeded out in the jury selection process.

On the evening of the attack, Omar brought a hand gun from his security job to the club. This was a violation of his security company job. That gun was left in the van on the night of the attack. Noor Slamans’ gun range membership card will also be allowed to be shown in the March trial.

Salman has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, she could face life in prison.