Ex-lawyer guilty of killing 5 in rampage targeting minorities


PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA — A jury Wednesday convicted a former immigration lawyer of killing five people in a shooting spree last year in which he drove through the suburbs calmly selecting non-white victims.

Richard Baumhammers, 35, a non-practicing attorney, also was convicted of eight counts of ethnic intimidation in the rampage that left a sixth victim paralyzed. The jury took three hours to convict him on five counts of first-degree murder in the April 28, 2000, shootings.

Baumhammers, who is white, shot his Jewish neighbor, two men from India, two Asian men and a black man as he drove his Jeep through suburban Pittsburgh, stopping twice to vandalize synagogues.

Prosecutors said he was trying to make a statement against non-white immigration.

Baumhammers could get the death penalty. On Thursday, the jurors were to start hearing penalty-phase testimony.

His lawyers admit he was the shooter but said he had struggled with delusions for 10 years.