PITTSBURGH — A jury of seven women and five men convicted Pittsburgh synagogue shooter Robert Bowers of all 63 charges against him Friday after less than 4½ hours of deliberation.
Family and friends of the 11 congregants slain by Bowers on Oct. 27, 2018, remained largely silent throughout the reading of the verdict for each individual charge. Bowers, too, remained quiet, looking down at the defense table or toward one of his attorneys as the judge read each charge.
Jurors received the case about 2:30 p.m. Thursday after 11 days of testimony and arguments. They signaled to U.S. District Judge Robert J. Colville they’d finished deliberating about 11:20 a.m. Friday.
In the hall outside the fifth-floor courtroom, FBI case agent Samantha Bell warned survivors to show no outward reaction, regardless of the verdict. Maggie Feinstein, director of the 10.27 Healing Partnership offered stress balls and hard candy.
Some held back tears as the verdicts were read. Others stiffened as their loved one’s name was read aloud.
“As to Count 1, obstruction of the free exercise of religious beliefs resulting in the death of Joyce Fienberg, we, the jury, unanimously find Robert Bowers guilty.”
Judge Colville read the charge for each victim.
As to Richard Gottfried — guilty. As to Rose Mallinger — guilty. Jerry Rabinowitz, Cecil Rosenthal, David Rosenthal, Bernice Simon, Sylvan Simon. Daniel Stein. Melvin Was. Irving Younger. Guilty.
“I am grateful to God for getting us to this day,” said Tree of Life Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, who survived the attack but lost seven congregants that day.
“Today,” he said, “I’m focused on being with my congregation and praying, singing and clapping in praise of God as we do each Shabbat.”
The Sabbath begins at sundown Friday.
Bowers, 50, was found guilty of hate crime-related charges, too, for each victim and for each congregant who survived that day.
Audrey Glickman, who hid in an upstairs storage room with her partner Joseph Charney, nodded as the judge read the charges pertaining to her: Obstruction or attempted obstruction of the free exercise of religious beliefs by Audrey Glickman — guilty.
It was by force, the jury found, and he used a gun, and law enforcement officers were injured in the attack — special circumstances that will come into play in the sentencing phase.
That verdict held for each victim and for each survivor. Daniel Leger, who was critically wounded in the shooting, bowed his head slightly when the judge read the charges related to his shooting.
Friday afternoon, Jewish community leaders gathered at the Pennsylvanian Apartments, across the street from the federal courthouse, for reflections on the jury’s verdict. Representatives from the affected congregations and others shared a sense of "relief" for the sweeping guilty verdict but also trepidation for what's ahead as the trial moves to sentencing.
Jeffrey Finkelstein, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh, said he was pleased to hear the verdict in the courtroom, but it was also a deeply emotional and at times traumatizing experience.
"I can personally speak about how emotional this was to be in there," he said. "To be in the same room as the person who committed this heinous, anti-Semitic crime."
Stephen Cohen of the New Light Congregation said while it’s difficult to express his emotions, there is a sense of relief. But he said this phase of the trial was just the beginning and in his eyes, "the least complicated" part.
"The defense did not argue that he did not do it," he said. "We don't know what's going to happen in the next two sections of the trial and what the defense will argue and what the jury will hear. We look forward to a final just conclusion and just punishment for the horrendous deeds done four and a half years ago."
Alan Hausman, president of the Tree of Life Congregation, thanked those who put time and effort into the case. He also called back to the words of Fred Rogers, who lived in Squirrel Hill later in his life.
"Mr. Rogers used to say to look for the helpers," he said. "We've been very fortunate to be surrounded by many many helpers ... Everybody from the public safety, to the Justice Department, to everybody involved and people standing behind me the other organizations, community members of churches, synagogues and mosques from around the world. These helpers have helped all of us get to this point today."
Brian Shreiber, the president and CEO of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, said as a Tree of Life congregant himself, the "vicious" crime that spurred headlines across the nation and globe will always remain an "intimate neighborhood affair."
"I knew many of those have been taken from us that day, many of those on the witness stand that have survived or that were fleeing for their lives," he said. "I'm glad that they are still here to provide that testimony, to be part of this. We remain united in community together to combat hate."
Prosecutors spent 10 days walking jurors — 12 deliberating jurors and five alternates — through each detail of the massacre, which remains the deadliest anti-Semitic attack on U.S. soil.
The synagogue at the corner of Shady and Wilkins avenues housed three congregations: Tree of Life, New Light, Dor Hadash. The Tree of Life congregation owned the hulking Squirrel Hill synagogue, and its name was emblazoned on the side in English and in Hebrew. “Tree of Life” became the grim moniker for the mass shooting.
Eleven worshippers were killed that morning. They are Joyce Fienberg, Richard Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, Cecil and David Rosenthal, Bernice and Sylvan Simon, Daniel Stein, Melvin Wax, Irving Younger.
Prosecutors put the extent of the carnage on full display over the course of their case, showing jurors crime scene and autopsy photos and playing frantic 911 calls from congregants inside the synagogue. One call played was from Bernice Simon. The recording captured her panicked pleas for help, her terror as more shots were fired, and her final breaths.
SWAT officers and tactical paramedics described a trail of destruction beginning at the main entrance to the massive synagogue where Bowers shot out a large glass window. Later, he would fire through an adjacent glass door toward patrol officers Dan Mead and Michael Smidga.
Some of the first responders choked back emotion through their testimony, speaking about the death Bowers left in his wake.
SWAT Officer John Persin described the smell of iron from the blood, a memory that’s stuck with him, he said June 6. SWAT Officer Justin LaPaglia told jurors about the eerie silence in his June 8 testimony.
“They invade my thoughts every day — the violence, the smells, the sights,” Persin said.
“There were no noises whatsoever. I could hear the rifle casings on the floor,” said LaPaglia.
Bowers’ attorneys had, since opening arguments, not shied away from the fact that Bowers was the shooter.
“He shot every person he saw,” lead defense attorney Judy Clarke said in her opening statements.
Federal public defender Elisa A. Long reiterated that in her brief closing arguments Thursday afternoon.
“There is no dispute that on Oct. 27, 2018, Robert Bowers entered the Tree of Life synagogue with an AR-15 … and shot every person he saw,” she told jurors. “In the process, he killed 11 innocent people.”
Long told jurors to examine Bowers’ true intent that morning — “why he did what he did and what thought he would accomplish by doing so.”
His real intent, she said, was to stop the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, a Jewish faith-based refugee resettlement organization. Dor Hadash participated in HIAS programs. In Bowers mind, Long said, he needed to stop Dor Hadash from supporting HIAS, who he believed was bringing “invaders” into his country.
U.S. Attorney Eric G. Olshan, in his rebuttal to the defense, balked at the idea that HIAS was the target of Bowers’ hate.
“That man, Robert Bowers, went into the Tree of Life synagogue where three congregations, not just Dor Hadash, were worshipping,” he said. “He focused on any Jew he could find to kill or try to kill. You don’t have to conclude hatred of Jews was his only reason, just the determinative one.”
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