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McVeigh Guilty in Oklahoma City Bombing

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A courtroom witness reacts to guilty verdicts in the Oklahoma City bombing trial.
DENVER (AP) — Timothy McVeigh was convictedtoday of blowing upthe Oklahoma City federal building in a murderous attack againsthis own government that awakened America to the threat of homegrownterrorism.

The 29-year-old decorated Gulf War veteran could get the deathpenalty for the April 19, 1995, blast that killed 168 people andinjured hundreds more in the deadliest act of terrorism on U.S.soil. The federal jury that took 23-1/2 hours over four days toconvict McVeigh on all 11 counts of murder and conspiracy willreturn Wednesday to decide if he should pay with his life.

McVeigh showed no reaction, wearing the same steely expressionhe had when he was arrested. Hands clasped tightly and pressedagainst one cheek, elbows on the table, McVeigh remained seated asthe verdict was read and stared at the judge. No one comforted himor said anything to him during the verdict reading.

As the jury was polled, the foreman stared at McVeigh the wholetime and answered in a loud, firm voice, ``Yes.'' Two jurors hadvery red eyes and were holding tissues in their hands and appearedclose to tears.

Tears welled in the eyes of more than two dozen survivors andvictims' family members as they smiled and wept at the same time.Many of them had worried that the case might result in a hung juryor even an acquittal as the deliberations dragged through theweekend.

U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch had warned the spectatorsbefore the verdict that he wouldn't tolerate any outburst. Butafter the judge left the bench, one man raised both fists over hishead. People embraced and broke into sobs. They walked out of thecourtroom hugging each other and crying.

Cheers erupted outside the courthouse and at the bombing siteinOklahoma City, where about 500 people gathered along the fence tohear the verdict read on televisions set up on the sidewalk.Victims' relatives hugged and wept.

``This gentleman came to town to make an awful extremepoliticalstatement of murder and devastation. He made it. He's going to livewith the responsibility that our laws provide,'' said Paul Heath,who was in the building at the time of the blast and has served asa spokesman for many of the victims.

Bud Welch, whose 23-year-old daughter Julie Welch died in thebombing, said at the fence: ``You heard most all of them clap. Icouldn't do that because McVeigh has put us through so much and now... I thought it'd all be joy, but it isn't. A very dull victory.The bottom line is my little girl isn't coming back and I have therest of my life to deal with that.''

In Washington, President Clinton said the verdict heralded ``avery important and long overdue day for the survivors and familiesof those who died in Oklahoma City.''

``Today, I say to the families of the victims, no singleverdictcan bring an end to your anguish,'' Clinton said in a statement.``But your courage has been an inspiration to all Americans. Ourprayers are with you.''

Aren Almon, whose daughter Baylee died in the blast and wascarried from the building by a firefighter in one of the mostfamous images of the catastrophe, offered her thanks to the jury.

``I don't think they're going to regret this. They made theright decision. He was guilty. I hope he'll get the deathpenalty,'' Almon said.

The jurors are barred from discussing the case until itscompletion.

``This verdict obviously is going to be a matter of greatinterest,'' the judge told them. ``People can't second-guess yourdecision. There is no obligation on your part to answer anyquestions.''

Afterward, McVeigh was escorted out by four U.S. marshals. Heshook lead attorney Stephen Jones' hand and the two exchangedwhispered words. Just as he was taken out of the courtroom, heshook hands with another of his attorneys, Christopher Tritico.

Jones congratulated prosecutors and the FBI, but citing the gagorder imposed by the judge said: ``I simply wanted to say we willbe ready for the second stage.''

Prosecutor Joseph Hartzler left the federal courthouse to theapplause of crowds lining the downtown streets and gave athumbs-up.

``We're obviously very pleased with the results. We always hadconfidence in our evidence,'' Hartzler said. ``We're ready to moveon the next stage.''

After the death penalty phase, McVeigh co-defendant TerryNichols will go on trial on the same charges.

The verdict came just over two years after the thunderousexplosion that shattered lives - and brought terror to the nation'sheartland.

Prosecutors contended McVeigh drove a Ryder truck loaded with a4,000-pound fuel-and-fertilizer bomb to the Murrah building and setthe fuse in a twisted plot to avenge the FBI siege at Waco exactlytwo years earlier and spark a second American revolution.

The bomb went off a 9:02 a.m., turning a routine morning atworkinto a swirl of flying glass, collapsing walls and crumblingconcrete. Nine floors collapsed into an area the size of three,crushing the victims, in the words of one rescuer, ``like grapes.''Among the dead were 19 children, most of whom had just been droppedoff at the building's day-care center.

Bloodied and disoriented, survivors staggered out of thebuilding. Many of the dead were so mangled they had to identifiedby fingerprints, dental records and surgical scars.

The hunt for the bomber yielded one of America's own, aboyish-looking former GI who was raised in the small town ofPendleton, N.Y., and was decorated for his actions as anarmored-vehicle gunner in the Persian Gulf.

Immediately after the bombing, there was speculation amongmembers of the public that the attack, like the World Trade Centerbombing two years earlier, was the work of foreign terrorists.McVeigh's arrest instead cast a spotlight on America's militiamovement and like-minded right-wing extremists who see Waco and the1992 FBI siege at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, as evidence the federalgovernment is extinguishing the constitutional rights of itscitizens.

In the speedy 18-day government case, prosecutors called peopleclose to McVeigh, from his sister to his friends, who testified hedivulged detailed plans to bomb the building months before theattack and devoured the anti-government novel ``The TurnerDiaries,'' which describes the destruction of a federal building tospark a civil war.

The government also produced rental documents, phone recordsandwitnesses who identified him as the man who rented the Ryder truckunder the alias Robert Kling.

The defense countered that McVeigh was swept up in a rush tojudgment and tried on the basis of lying, opportunist witnesses andscientific evidence tainted by FBI mishandling and labcontamination. And it stressed the government had no witnesses whocould place McVeigh at the bombing scene.

But McVeigh's attorneys were barred by the judge from pursuingthe its most controversial theory - that the bombing was part of alarger conspiracy involving overseas terrorists or American whitesupremacists.

McVeigh was arrested 75 minutes after the explosion about 80miles north of the blast site. He was pulled over by a statetrooper for failing to have a license plate on his yellow MercuryMarquis.

He was in jail on an unrelated gun charge for two days beforeauthorities realized he might have something to do with thebombing. Authorities traced the vehicle identification number on ablown-apart truck axle near the bomb crater to Elliott's Body Shopin Junction City, Kan., where a worker provided information for acomposite sketch of the man who rented the truck.

Prosecutors also introduced phone records from a prepaid phonecalling card that they said tracked McVeigh's efforts to acquirethe ingredients of the bomb, including detonator cord andhigh-powered fuel to be blended with the explosive ammonium nitratefertilizer.

A receipt for 2,000 pounds of explosive ammonium nitrate wasfound in Nichols' home and contained McVeigh's fingerprints. TheFBI lab tested McVeigh's clothes and earplugs and found traces ofexplosives.

In its compact, 3 1/2-day case, the defense attacked evidenceexamined by the much-maligned FBI crime lab. FBI whistle-blowerFrederic Whitehurst said the clothes were handled by improperlytrained scientists and tested in an area contaminated withexplosives residue.

The defense also called witnesses to raise the specter ofanother, as-yet-anonymous bomber, who may have died in the blast,leaving only his mangled leg in the rubble. One Elliott's employeerecalled seeing two men come into the shop to rent the truck; shecouldn't identify either.

By STEPHEN K. PAULSON,Associated Press WriterCopyright ©1997 AssociatedPress. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast,rewritten, or distributed.

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