Jury finds Noor Salman not guilty of all charges connected to Pulse nightclub shooting

John Bacon and Christal Hayes, USA TODAY
Published 9:53 a.m. ET March 30, 2018
Updated 10:33 a.m. ET March 30, 2018

10:27 a.m.: The widow of the gunman who killed 49 people at a gay Orlando nightclub has been acquitted on charges of lying to the FBI and helping her husband in the 2016 attack.

Noor Salman was found not guilty of charges of obstruction and providing material support to a terrorist organization.

9:45 a.m.: The jury has reached a verdict in the trial of Noor Salman, widow of Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen. Mateen killed 49 people in 2016.

Officials from U.S. District Court in Orlando said Friday the jury had reached its decision, and it will be announced in about 30 minutes.

Noor Salman is charged with obstruction and providing material support to a terrorist organization. She faces life in prison if convicted.

EARLIER STORY

ORLANDO — The fate of the Pulse nightclub gunman's widow will remain a mystery for another day as a jury plans to continue deliberations Friday on whether she helped her husband plan the the bloody attack in Orlando that killed 49 people.

The deliberations started Wednesday afternoon and will stretch into a third day. They are schedule to be back Friday morning to continue their examination of the case. Noor Salman, 31, is charged with providing material support to the Islamic State, a foreign terror organization, and with obstructing justice. She could face life in prison if convicted.

During the day Thursday, jurors asked Judge Paul Byron for some definitions and descriptions related to the charges, some of which he provided.

On Wednesday, jurors asked for and were given a copy of Salman's statement to the FBI following husband Omar Mateen's 2016 attack on the nightclub that ended in Mateen's fatal shooting by police.

The statement has been a crucial piece of evidence in the case and a major point of contention with questions whether the 12-page statement Salman signed was fact or fiction.

In the early morning hours after the attack, she was questioned by federal authorities and her story changed multiple times, prosecutors said. She finally signed a 12-page statement that outlined her knowledge of Mateen's planning and his idolization of the Islamic State.

"I knew when he left the house he was going to Orlando to attack the Pulse nightclub," the statement said. It added that Mateen has been discussing jihad with her for two years.

Salman also said in the statement that she had accompanied Mateen while casing Pulse and other potential targets. But during the course of the trial, it was revealed that GPS and cellphone data showed that neither Mateen nor Salman had been near the nightclub before the attack.

In one of multiple failed attempts at a mistrial, Salman's attorneys argued the government never told them that part of the statement had been proved false. The defense lawyers argued that the disproved statement was a key piece of evidence that kept her behind bars since her arrest in January 2017.

While that piece of the statement has been disproved, prosecutors stressed they used electronic evidence to prove other points were correct, including Mateen's obsession with ISIS.

Contributing: The Associated Press

https://www.floridatoday.com/story/n...een/472612002/