Ft. Hood Texas Base Shooting

Michael Grant Cahill, 62; Major L. Eduardo Caraveo, 52; /td>Staff Sergeant Justin Michael DeCrow, 32; Captain John P. Gaffaney, 56; /td>Specialist Frederick Greene, 29; Specialist Jason Dean Hunt, 22; /td>Sergeant Amy Sue Krueger, 29; Private First Class Aaron T. Nemelka, 19; Private First Class Michael S. Pearson, 22; Captain Russell Gilbert Seager, 51; Private First Class Francheska Velez, 21; Lieutenant Colonel Juanita L. Warman, 55; Private First Class Kham See Xiong, 23; U.S. Army personnel murdered in a domestic terror attack on Ft. Hood, Texas November 5, 2009; over thirty more individuals were wounded but survived
Nidal Malik Hasan – U.S. Army major, psychiatrist, and American-born Muslim of Palestinian descent, was shot and incapacitated by civilian police officers
Ft. Hood, TX

A Pentagon review released Friday portrayed a systemic breakdown within the military that permitted an Army psychiatrist, now charged with killing 13 people, to advance through the ranks despite concerns from his superiors about his behavior.

The review, the first into the Nov. 5 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Tex., concluded that the Department of Defense was poorly prepared to defend itself from internal threats well beyond the single case of the military doctor accused of the killings, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan.

The review’s findings, although they were focused only on the military and not on other agencies, are the latest signal that the government has not achieved the smooth communications and agility among intelligence agencies that has been sought since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, in comments about the review at a Pentagon news conference on Friday, said the Defense Department was still focused on fighting external threats and previous conflicts and had not paid enough attention to workplace violence and any “self-radicalization” within its ranks.

“It is clear that, as a department, we have not done enough to adapt to the evolving domestic internal security threat to American troops and military facilities that has emerged over the past decade,” Mr. Gates said. “In this area, as in so many others, this department is burdened by 20th-century processes and attitudes mostly rooted in the cold war.”

A high-level Pentagon inquiry into the Fort Hood shootings that left 13 people dead has concluded that the military should focus more resources on identifying service members who might pose a threat to their colleagues and outlines a series of steps it should take to prevent such attacks, Pentagon officials said.

The study, which will be presented to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen on Wednesday, is expected to be publicly released Thursday. The report concludes that officer performance evaluations, which often obscure shortcomings to preserve officers’ careers, need to be more forthright and honest, officials familiar with the report said.

The inquiry, which was led by retired Adm. Vernon E. Clark and former Army secretary Togo D. West Jr., also calls on the Pentagon to ensure that it fully staffs FBI-run Joint Terrorism Task Forces so that information collected by other government agencies about potential contacts between troops and terrorist groups is shared promptly with the Defense Department. And it recommends that the department designate one place to coordinate with other government agencies and assess internal threats.

Read more: Pentagon inquiry into Fort Hood urges focus on service members who may pose risk

The attorney for the Fort Hood shootings suspect says his client will be evaluated next month to determine his mental status that day and whether he’s competent to stand trial. Attorney John Galligan says prosecutors notified him that a three-person board of medical professionals has been named and will start reviewing documents in the case.

He says that after the board finishes by Feb. 7, members will evaluate Maj. Nidal Hasan. Galligan declined to release the names of the board members, who will report their findings to military prosecutors. Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, has been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in the Nov. 5 shootings on the Texas Army post.

Nasser al-Wahayshi, the Yemeni leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), and his Saudi deputy, Saeed al-Shehri, were believed to be among more than 30 militants killed in the dawn operation in the eastern province of Shabwa, said the official, who asked not to be identified.

U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki may also have died in the air strike which targeted a meeting of militants planning attacks on Yemeni and foreign oil and economic targets, he said. According to U.S. officials, the U.S. army psychiatrist who ran amok at the Fort Hood army base in Texas on November 5 had contacts with Awlaki.

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 12 soldiers and a civilian at Fort Hood last month, won’t get the two additional military lawyers his defense team has requested.

John P. Galligan, the retired Army colonel who is representing Maj. Hasan, asked the Army earlier this month to add the veteran legal officers to the defense team. In addition to Mr. Galligan, Maj. Hasan has a military-appointed defense counsel, Maj. Christopher Martin.

But Mr. Galligan said Friday night that the Army had denied his request, although he may be able to ask for different officers to join the defense.

Officials at Fort Hood couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Maj. Hasan has been charged with 13 counts of murder and 32 counts of attempted murder in the Nov. 5 shootings. Maj. Hasan has not entered a plea in the case. He was paralyzed in the shootout and, although no longer in intensive care, remains in a military hospital in San Antonio, Texas

Military sources have said prosecutors will seek the death penalty.

The Army psychiatrist charged in last month’s deadly shooting spree at Fort Hood has been moved from ICU to a private room. Attorney John Galligan said today that his client, Maj. Nidal Hasan, remains under guard at a San Antonio military hospital and is doing rehabilitation.

Galligan says doctors have said Hasan, whose wounds left him paralyzed, needs to be hospitalized a couple more months while he learns to care for himself. But Galligan says he’s filed a motion to have Hasan moved to a hospital closer to his office near Fort Hood, which is about 125 miles northeast of San Antonio.

Col. Michael Mulligan has been named the lead prosecutor in the court-martial of accused Fort Hood gunman Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a senior military official in Washington told The Associated Press. Mulligan secured the death penalty in a similar case four years ago, the official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.

Hasan is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in the Nov. 5 shooting rampage at Fort Hood’s Soldier Readiness Center that left 12 soldiers and a civilian dead and 29 others injured.

Mulligan prosecuted a case in 2005 in which Sgt. Hasan Akbar was sentenced to death for a 2003 attack on comrades in Kuwait that left two dead and 14 wounded.

Authorities haven’t said if they’ll seek the death penalty Hasan’s court-martial.

Authorities have tightened the rules for accused Fort Hood shooter Major Nidal Hasan. The 39-year-old Army officer accused in the November 5th shooting rampage that killed 13 people has been told that he can no longer communicate with visitors in any language other than English.

In addition, Hasan — purportedly a devout Muslim — can no longer receive visits from members of the clergy.

He remains in intensive care at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. His family is not allowed to visit when his lawyer is present, and only two visitors are permitted at one time while accompanied by criminal investigators.

One of two civilian police officers who brought down the Army psychiatrist accused of going on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood said her wounds from the attack will cut short her career as street police officer.

Sgt. Kimberly Munley said doctors have told her she needs a total knee replacement, a surgery set for January, but that her new knee is likely to wear out sooner if she runs or carries the 15- to 25-pound gear pack required by her job.

“I do want to stay in law enforcement. I’m not going to be able to do what I did before, which is basically work the street,” she told Wilmington, N.C., television station WECT on Wednesday. “It’s going to give me another avenue to look in as far as possibly teaching and instructing.”

Fort Hood officials said Thursday that Munley, 34, who was shot in the leg and hand, has not started the process to determine whether she’s physically able to do her former job.

Munley and Sgt. Mark Todd, another civilian officer in Fort Hood’s police force, are credited with shooting Maj. Nidal Hasan to end the Nov. 5 shooting spree on the Texas Army post, about 150 miles southwest of Fort Worth. Todd, 42, was not injured and is already back at work.

An Army psychiatrist was charged Wednesday with 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in the deadly mass shooting at Fort Hood that also injured more than two dozen soldiers and two civilian police officers, military officials said.

Maj. Nidal Hasan already is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder after the Nov. 5 shooting in a building at the Texas base where soldiers must go before being deployed. Witnesses said he jumped on a desk and shouted the words “Allahu Akbar!” — Arabic for “God is great!” Army officials say he was armed with two pistols, one a semiautomatic capable of firing up to 20 rounds without reloading.

The additional charges come less than 24 hours after Hasan’s civilian attorney was notified that the Army planned to evaluate Hasan to test his competency to stand trial as well as his mental state at the time of the shooting.

John Galligan, Hasan’s attorney, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Army officials had not returned his calls so he did not know when or where the “mental responsibility” exam would take place. But Galligan said he filed an objection to the evaluation, saying Hasan was still in intensive care at a San Antonio military hospital recovering from gunshot wounds that left him paralyzed.

The Army is ordering a mental evaluation on Major Nidal Hasan. He is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder in the November 5th shooting spree.

Hasan’s attorney, John Galligan says he got notice Tuesday night of the plan. The evaluation would determine whether the 39-year-old Hasan had mental responsibility at the time of the crime and whether he’s competent to stand trial.

But, Galligan says the exam is premature because Hasan remains in intensive care in San Antonio, and more charges may be pending.

In response to the shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, the Army is ordering its commanders to review force protection measures in their communities to identify potential insider threats and prevent acts of violence directed against the Army.

The message — sent earlier this week from the office of the Army chief of staff — provides guidelines for leaders to ensure the physical safety of its soldiers and families. It also provides them with key indicators of terrorist behavior.

The guidelines include:

* knowing soldiers’ behavior on and off duty;
* identifying and reporting soldiers who exhibit indicators of potential violence;
* ensuring compliance with privately owned weapons policies;
* taking appropriate disciplinary action against soldiers who exhibit behavior that adversely affects good order and discipline of the unit.

The Army and several other government agencies have come under fire for failing to prevent the gunning down of 13 people at Fort Hood earlier this month. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, faces 13 murder counts in the case.

In the days following the shooting, congressional leaders questioned why Army officials and the FBI reportedly ignored warning signs, including that Hasan allegedly sent e-mails to a radical Muslim cleric and allegedly donated thousands of dollars to overseas Islamic “charities,” which have been identified by the U.S. as conduits for terror groups.

Among the 10 key indicators of potential terrorist behavior listed in the message are:

* advocating support for international terrorist organizations;
* providing financial support to terrorist organizations;
* repeated expressions of hatred and intolerance of American society;
* purchasing bomb-making materials or obtaining information about the construction of explosives.

Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who is charged in the mass shooting at Fort Hood over two weeks ago, had his first court hearing Saturday.

The purpose of the hearing was to determine if Major Hasan would be kept under pretrial confinement.

On Saturday a military magistrate did place Hasan in pretrial confinement, but also said the alleged shooter will remain in a military hospital.

“Right now the magistrate has concluded that there was probable cause, he has made a determination that there was a basis for a commander to order someone into pretrial confinement,” said Hasan’s attorney John Galligan.

Saturday’s proceeding were held in Hasan’s hospital room.

According to Galligan, Hasan is paralyzed and still in ICU.

“There was no immediate need for the government, the prosecution, or the army to take the step of changing him from a patient to a pretrial confinee,” Galligan added.

Hasan has been recovering at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, after suffering four gun shot wounds in the attack that killed 13 people and injured 30 others.

The signs pointing to Nidal Malik Hasan’s suspected extremism might have been there for years before the fatal Fort Hood shootings, but most people around him in Killeen never suspected a thing.

When the Army major gave his belongings to neighbors days before the massacre, they assumed it was because he was going to be deployed overseas.

But Hasan left behind business cards with cryptic abbreviations of suspected links to radical Islam and exhibited a calm a day before the shootings that now gives people pause.

The green and white cards, one of which remained partly visible Friday with more of Hasan’s belongings that FBI agents left behind after searching his apartment, say “Behavioral Health — Mental Health — Life Skills” and appear to advertise a side venture as a therapist for other Muslims. The card did not list his rank or his Army affiliation.

The card listed a Maryland phone number (calls to the number were met with a message saying the voicemail is full), and an AOL e-mail address for Hasan, one of several that investigators now are poring over.

Under his name on the card, the abbreviation “SoA (SWT)” appears. SoA is used as an acronym for “Soldier of Allah,” and the phrase often appears on jihad Web sites.

Continue readingHasan kept his inner life well-concealed

Intelligence officials are examining whether the Fort Hood shooter wired money to Pakistan before the Nov. 5 shootings, U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Holland, told the Free Press today.

Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said that Maj. Nidal Hasan, the suspect in the deadly shootings at a military base in Texas last week, is being examined for financial transactions to people in Pakistan.

“A pretty credible source said to me … you need to look at his connections to Pakistan, money transfers to Pakistan,” Hoekstra said today. “I believe there is substance to it.”

The links to Pakistan are of concern because the country has become a center for Islamic militant groups, he said.

Hoekstra said earlier this week that Hasan had exchanged 10 to 20 e-mails with Anwar Al-Awlaki, a cleric in the Middle East who once worked at mosques in the U.S., including one in Virginia that Hasan had attended.

Hoekstra’s comments about Hasan’s possible ties to Pakistan were first reported Thursday by the Dallas Morning News.

Hoekstra has been calling this week for officials to fully investigate the shootings and whether they are tied to Islamic extremism.

“The horrific shootings at Fort Hood are a tragic reminder of the potential deadly consequences of the threat posed by homegrown jihadism and the failure of the government to adequately respond to it,” Hoekstra said in a separate statement earlier this week.

The military psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood was part of a medical psychiatrist corps stretched to its limits, raising questions about whether the Army kept him on to meet personnel goals.

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was promoted from the rank of captain to major in May, military records show. Because of a shortage of majors in the medical corps, the promotion board was given the authority to promote captains who otherwise would not have been considered for a promotion to major, according to a U.S. military official who asked not to be identified in connection with discussing personnel matters possibly related to the Hasan investigation.

Army officials were not at liberty to discuss Hasan’s promotion rating or to say if the service was keeping him to fill needed staffing quotas.

Currently, the rank of major in the Army is in the 85 percent fulfilled mark or, put another way, there are 1,191 people currently in the rank for which there are 1,402 total positions.

Hasan was promoted after six years as serving at the rank of captain, the standard time spent in that rank in the medical corps, according to Army officials.

The Army is also short in the number of psychiatrists it needs, according to Army statistics. The service has about 85 percent of the number needed to fill the ranks, 123 of the 143 required, according to Army documents.

Finger-pointing erupted between federal agencies Tuesday over Fort Hood shooting suspect Nidal Hasan. Government officials said a Defense Department terrorism investigator looked into Hasan’s contacts with a radical imam months ago, but a military official denied prior knowledge of the Army psychiatrist’s contacts with any Muslim extremists.

The two government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case on the record, said the Washington-based joint terrorism task force overseen by the FBI was notified of communications between Hasan and a radical imam overseas, and the information was turned over to a Defense Criminal Investigative Service employee assigned to the task force. The communications were gathered by investigators beginning in December 2008 and continuing into early this year.

That Defense investigator wrote up an assessment of Hasan after reviewing the communications and the Army major’s personnel file, according to these officials. The assessment concluded Hasan did not merit further investigation — in large part because his communications with the imam were centered on a research paper about the effects of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan and the investigator determined that Hasan was in fact working on such a paper, the officials said.

U.S. Army officials say they intend to charge the alleged gunman in last week’s shooting rampage at Fort Hood — Major Nidal Malik Hasan — with 13 counts of premeditated murder.

Officials are expected to officially announce the murder charges Thursday.

Hasan allegedly opened fire on unarmed soldiers at the Fort Hood military base as the troops were preparing for deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Authorities are investigating motives for the attack amid concerns that U.S. authorities missed warning signs that could have prevented the rampage that left 13 dead and 30 wounded.

A group of U.S. military doctors overseeing Hasan’s training as an army psychiatrist expressed concerns a year ago about his bizarre behavior.

Hasan, who was shot multiple times by civilian police during the attack, is recovering at an Army hospital near San Antonio (Texas).

Earlier this week, doctors said Hasan is in serious condition but is awake and talking.

U.S. media reports Wednesday, citing unnamed military officials, said the doctors that reviewed Hasan a year ago held a series of meetings where they discussed problems with his performance and mental state.

Colleagues described Hasan as aloof, belligerent and frequently argumentative when discussing his Muslim faith, and some wondered if he was “psychotic.”

The officials decided against seeking his removal because they did not believe him to be violent and they thought his transfer to Fort Hood in July would help lessen his workload.

A U.S. Army spokesman says the man authorities say went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood has been taken off a ventilator but still remains in intensive care at a military hospital.

A MONTH after his arrival in Texas in July, Major Nidal Malik Hasan walked into Guns Galore, a weapons shop near the sprawling Fort Hood military base, and spent $1,000 on a high-powered, Belgian-made semi-automatic pistol that is said by its manufacturer to be “lightweight and easily concealable … It will defeat the enemy in all close combat situations”.

It was an unusual purchase for an army psychiatrist who had never shown any interest in guns and who had spent almost all his military career learning how to deal with the consequences of gun violence at the US Army’s Walter Reed medical centre in Washington.

Army investigators now believe that Hasan’s 5.7-calibre FN Herstal tactical pistol was the only gun he fired in the horrific seven-minute rampage that killed 13 people and injured at least 30 others at the Fort Hood base last Thursday.

In army offices crowded with hundreds of soldiers, Hasan, a 39-year-old American-born Muslim of Palestinian descent, was somehow able to fire at least 100 times, pausing repeatedly to reload 20-round magazines, before he was shot by military police.

He was carrying another pistol, a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum, but does not appear to have used it.

At one point, said Specialist Eliot Valdez, who witnessed the aftermath of the assault, Hasan was shooting the occupants of a crowded room like “fish in a barrel … It was too easy, you can close your eyes and hit eight people”.

As Hasan lay paralysed in a coma at a military hospital in San Antonio, Texas, yesterday, investigators were struggling to establish a motive for an unprecedented mass murder that has stunned the US military establishment, shaken President Barack Obama’s White House and raised alarming questions about whether Hasan’s superiors should have seen a disaster coming.

He was by turns caring and contentious, a man quick to say “I am blessed” in casual greeting yet one who seemed to stew in discontent that he could not always keep to himself.

Army psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan, suspect in the assault that killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, and hurt 30, salved the emotional wounds of troops returning from war even as he objected to his own looming deployment to Afghanistan, where he was to counsel soldiers suffering from stress.

But Hasan argued with fellow soldiers who supported U.S. war policy, say those who know him professionally and personally. He was a counselor who once required counseling for himself because of trouble he had dealing with some patients, said a former boss.

Authorities on Friday seized Hasan’s home computer, searched his apartment and took away a Dumpster as the 39-year-old Army major lay in a coma in the hospital, attached to a ventilator.

There are many unknowns about the man authorities say is responsible for the worst mass killing on a U.S. military base.

Most of all, his motive.

For six years before reporting for duty at Fort Hood, in July, Hasan worked at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center pursuing his career in psychiatry, as an intern, a resident and, last year, a fellow in disaster and preventive psychiatry. He received his medical degree from the military’s Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., in 2001.

While an intern at Walter Reed, Hasan had some “difficulties” that required counseling and extra supervision, said Dr. Thomas Grieger, who was the training director at the time.

Grieger said privacy laws prevented him from going into details but noted that the problems had to do with Hasan’s interactions with patients. He recalled Hasan as a “mostly very quiet” person who never spoke ill of the military or his country.

Continue reading Details emerge about background of Army psychiatrist suspected in rampage at Fort Hood, Texas

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army officer who went on a murderous shooting spree here Thursday, confessed to his local mosque elder months before that he was conflicted between his devotion to Islam and his allegiance to the U.S. military.

“If soldiers come to me and have problems fighting other Muslims, what do I tell them?” Hasan asked Osman Danquah, co-founder of the Islamic Community of Greater Killeen, in August.

Hasan also asked about soldiers changing their minds after joining the military and inquired about other members of the congregation. His line of questioning sounded so disjointed, however, that Danquah said Saturday he suspected Hasan might be a federal agent trying to infiltrate the mosque.

“I told him, ‘There’s something wrong with you, and if you’re here to gather information, we’re not here to do anything against the government. We’re here to worship,’” Danquah said.

In his radio address Saturday President Obama asked for patience while officials piece together what happened.

“We cannot fully know what leads a man to do such a thing,” Obama said. “But what we do know is that our thoughts are with every one of the men and women who were injured at Fort Hood. Our thoughts are with all the families who’ve lost a loved one in this national tragedy.”

Obama’s aides were working to make way for him to attend a still unscheduled memorial service.

On Thursday, Hasan jumped on a desk and hollered “Allahu Akbar!” — God is great! — inside Fort Hood’s Soldier Readiness Center before firing at soldiers and civilians gathered there, military and hospital officials said. Twelve soldiers and one civilian were killed and 30 others were wounded, some seriously, Fort Hood spokesman Col. John Rossi said. Authorities are calling it the deadliest shooting spree ever inside an American military base.

Some said he was an outspoken Muslim, prone to emotional outbursts, angry about the U.S. war in Iraq and dreading an impending deployment to Afghanistan.

Others who knew him recalled Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan as a dedicated Army psychiatrist trained to help fellow soldiers cope with the psychological wounds of combat.

And a few noted that while Hasan never exhibited a violent side, they weren’t particularly surprised to learn he allegedly was at the center of the worst mass murder ever committed on an American military base.

Now the 39-year-old Muslim-American, who authorities say killed 13 people and wounded 38 others in Thursday’s rampage at Fort Hood in Texas, is at the center of a riddle investigators have only begun to probe: How could a military psychiatrist, surrounded by other mental health experts sensitized to signs of combat stress, suddenly snap without any apparent warning?

As Hasan lay in a coma in a Texas hospital after being shot by base police responding to Thursday’s attack, investigators fanned out across the country Friday in search of a motive or explanation for the killings.

Hasan grew up in Virginia and spent years in the Washington, D.C., area on military assignments, before being transferred to Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood in August, officials said.

Dr. Val Finnell, a classmate of Hasan’s last year at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Maryland, called Hasan “a vociferous opponent to U.S. policy in Iraq” and said he frequently spoke about his faith, sometimes in inappropriate venues.

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Military officials were starting Friday to piece together what may have pushed an Army psychiatrist trained to help soldiers in distress to turn on his comrades in a shooting rampage that killed 13 people and wounded 30 in Texas.

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The suspected shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was on a ventilator and unconscious in a hospital after being shot four times during the shootings at the Army’s sprawling Fort Hood, post officials said. In the early chaos after the shootings, authorities believed they had killed him, only to discover later that he had survived.

In Washington, a senior U.S. official said authorities at Fort Hood initially thought one of the victims who had been shot and killed was the shooter. The mistake resulted in a delay of several hours in identifying Hasan as the alleged assailant.

Authorities have not ruled out that Hasan was acting on behalf of some unidentified radical group, the official said. He would not say whether any evidence had come to light to support that theory.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss matters that were under investigation.

An Army psychiatrist suspected of opening fire on fellow soldiers at Fort Hood cleaned out his apartment in the days before the rampage that left 13 people dead, a neighbor said Friday.

The neighbor, Patricia Villa, said Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan came over to her apartment Wednesday and Thursday and offered her some items, including a new Quran, saying he was going to be deployed on Friday. She wasn’t sure if he was going to Iraq or Afghanistan.

Authorities said Hasan went on a shooting spree later Thursday at the sprawling Texas post. He was among 30 people wounded in the spree and remained hospitalized on a ventilator Friday. All but two of the injured were still hospitalized, and all were in stable condition.

Investigators were still trying to piecing together how and why an Army psychiatrist facing deployment allegedly gunned down his comrades in one of the worst mass shootings ever on an American military base.

“This was an individual who took it upon himself to attack and murder his colleagues, people who were on the base with him,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told Sky News from Brussels, Belgium. “That investigation is under way by law enforcement authorities, and let’s let that be the No. 1 priority in terms of ascertaining what motivations he had.”

Katie Couric speaks with CBS News’ David Martin at the Pentagon and correspondent Don Teague, reporting from the Ft. Hood army base in Texas.

Born and reared in Virginia, the son of immigrant parents from a small Palestinian town near Jerusalem, he joined the Army right out of high school, against his parents’ wishes. The Army, in turn, put him through college and then medical school, where he trained to be a psychiatrist.

But Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the 39-year-old man accused of Thursday’s mass shooting at Fort Hood, Tex., started having second thoughts about his military career a few years ago after other soldiers harassed him for being a Muslim, he told relatives in Virginia.

He had also more recently expressed deep concerns about being sent to Iraq or Afghanistan. Having counseled scores of returning soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder, first at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington and more recently at Fort Hood, he knew all too well the terrifying realities of war, said a cousin, Nader Hasan.

“He was mortified by the idea of having to deploy,” Mr. Hasan said. “He had people telling him on a daily basis the horrors they saw over there.”

A civilian who was present at the Ft. Hood army base during the shooting spree recounts her experiences to Katie Couric as army officials placed the base on lock down security.

Maj. Malik Nidal Hasan arrived at Fort Hood, Texas, in July, right after finishing his residency in psychiatry at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

Hasan, 39, was about to deploy overseas, according to U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who represents Texas. It is unclear whether he was headed to Iraq or Afghanistan, or when he was scheduled to leave.

Federal law enforcement officials say the suspected Fort Hood, Texas, shooter had come to their attention at least six months ago because of Internet postings that discussed suicide bombings and other threats.

The officials say the postings appeared to have been made by Hasan. The officials say they are still trying to confirm that he was the author. They say an official investigation was not opened.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.

One of the Web postings that authorities reviewed is a blog that equates suicide bombers with a soldier throwing himself on a grenade to save the lives of his comrades.

Military officials in Washington say Hasan was a graduate of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md.

Hasan became a captain in May 2003 and a major in May 2009.

Military officials with access to Hasan’s military record said he received a poor performance evaluation while at Walter Reed. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because military records are confidential.

Officials say the suspected Fort Hood shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was a psychiatrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for six years before transferring to Fort Hood. They said he received a poor performance evaluation while at Walter Reed

West Mesa Bone Collector – Albuquerque NM

Victoria Chavez, 24; Monica Candelaria, 21; Veronica Romero, 26; Cinnamon Elks, 31; Julie Nieto, 23; Doreen Marquez, 27; and Michelle Valdez, 22 (4 months pregnant); Syllannia Edwards, 15; 3-4 as yet unidentified victims – bodies discovered buried in the New Mexico desert starting in February, 2009
Albuquerque, NM

Investigator said a serial killer known as the West Mesa Bone Collector is responsible for the murder of an Lawton teen.

Investigators in Nevada found 11 women and one fetus buried in the West Mesa back in February. Seven of the victims were identified early on, but on Friday, the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator identified the eighth victim as a runaway from Lawton, Oklahoma. Albuquerque police spokeswoman Nadine Hamby identified 15-year-old Syllannia Edwards as the victim.

According to the missing person report filed with Lawton police back in August of 2003, Edwards ran away from a girls group home called Parker Pointe in Lawton. The home is geared towards young girls who are victims of neglect and abuse. Edwards was in DHS custody at the time she went missing.
{complete case coverage below}

Investigators said the victim’s family is based in Texas but have been told Edwards entered Oklahoma DHS custody at the age of five after her mother went to jail.

New Mexico investigators said not only is Edwards the youngest victim, but also the first to be from outside New Mexico.

The positive identification came after employees compared a forensic sketch they made of the victim based on a skull with photos of missing children posted online. They then used dental records to secure the identification.

Investigators confirmed Thursday they have identified one more murder victim from among the 11 women buried in a makeshift West Mesa graveyard.

However police said they were not ready to release the latest victim’s name until Friday.

It’s been almost seven months since the last victim was identified. Police have said all along that with every victim they identify they get closer to figuring out how their paths may have crossed and to their killer.

Last month police released a sketch of what the youngest victim may have looked like. The sketch had been done by an investigator at Office of the Medical Investigator who used the unidentified woman’s skull as a guide.

Last week another OMI medical investigator zeroed in on 10 missing women from across the country that she thought could be the victim. Police would not say if the recent work on the woman had resulted in the identification.

The three remaining unidentified bodies are at a Texas laboratory where they are being analyzed by forensic anthropologists who help crack cold cases. They’ve been working on determining a cause of death as well as extracting DNA.

In February a woman walking her dog near a construction site found a bone that turned out to be human. Investigators began digging, and the more they dug the more the mystery deepened.

Eleven women, one of them pregnant, were believed to have been buried sometime between 2001 and 2005.

The latest woman to be identified will join the list of victims. Her family will join the other families who wondered for years where they were.

The body count stands at 12—13 if you include the fetus—all young women heinously murdered and then deep-sixed into the grit of a forlorn desert. Their families claim the local police made no effort to find them after they were reported missing. The women knew each other from Albuquerque’s War Zone—the notorious neighborhood where prostitutes and drug dealers ply their trade. They were young and Hispanic, many were mothers, and all were living what the Albuquerque police euphemistically refer to as a “high-risk lifestyle.”

They disappeared between 2001 and 2006 and were apparently afraid for their lives.

Cinnamon Elks, one of the seven who have been identified so far, told friends shortly before her August 2004 disappearance that “a dirty cop was chopping off the heads of prostitutes and burying them on the West Mesa,” according to Joline Gutierrez-Krueger of the Albuquerque Journal. Police have not revealed the causes of death, so whether the victims were decapitated is unknown. But that has not stopped the rumors flying wildly on the streets of the city. The police have refused to reveal details of the evidence uncovered at the crime scene—an 18-foot-deep pit called “the bowl” on a 92-acre site west of the city. Nor have they speculated about suspects except to assure residents that if the murders were the work of a serial killer, the perpetrator has either died or moved to another city. But despite law enforcement reassurance, the macabre excavation has kept the community on edge for the past 12 weeks and has spotlighted the dark side of the largest city in New Mexico.

The gruesome discovery belied the tranquility of the once-picturesque basaltic plateau, a sacred site for Native Americans that was home to coyotes and eagles, and situated near the most dramatic petroglyphs in the Southwest—carvings created between 3000 B.C. and 500 A.D. by Anasazi farmers, hunter-gatherers, and Spanish sheepherders. Now, the “West Mesa is a dusty escarpment littered with trash dumps and tire tracks, spent slugs and brambly weeds,” as High Country News writer Laura Paskus recently described the crime scene. Like the discarded bones of these forgotten women, the ravaged landscape has come to symbolize the violence against women.

It all began innocently enough, on February 2, 2009, when Christine Ross and her dog Ruca took their regular walk in an area that had been recently leveled for a housing subdivision. On top of the dirt, Ruca found a large femur bone. “It didn’t look normal. Our gut instinct told us it wasn’t supposed to be there,” Ross told a reporter. Suspecting it was human, she photographed it on her cellphone and texted it to her nurse sister who confirmed the suspicion. She called the police who began the three-month-long dig at the country’s largest crime scene—the landscape equivalent to 75 football fields. On April 25, they ended the search, declaring that no more bodies could be found. “We estimate we’ve moved over 40,000 cubic yards of dirt,” Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz told the media. Seven victims have been identified: Monica Candelaria, 21; Veronica Romero, 26; Cinnamon Elks, 31; Julie Nieto, 23; Victoria Chavez, 28; Doreen Marquez, 27; and Michelle Valdez, 22, who was four months’ pregnant.

Police are still seeking clues about the remaining Jane Does, and have published the photograph of an acrylic nail with an unusual hot pink design hoping that a local manicurist might recognize it. All of the identified women were on a list of 16 compiled by the department’s missing-persons unit, and all had a history of prostitution. Many were addicted to heroin, some were police informants, and several left small children behind.

“That somebody would do this to my daughter and dump her like she was a piece of trash and leave her lying out there with no dignity. I am devastated and angry,” said Karen Jackson, the mother of Michelle Valdez, capturing the grief and fury that the women’s families feel. After years of frustration with the local police, who rarely returned their phone calls or pursued the investigative tips the families provided, the victims’ relatives are outraged. “Nobody has listened to us for so many years,” said Lori Gallegos, a childhood friend of Doreen Marquez, who was last seen in October 2003 dropping her son off at Calvary Christian Academy. “These girls all had dreams,” said the father of one of the missing. “No girl grows up wanting that.”

Continue reading Who’s Murdering the Prostitutes of Albuquerque?

The ongoing investigation of human remains on the southwest mesa will be the main focus of an entire episode of the television show “America’s Most Wanted” focusing on Albuquerque crime.

Show producers and production staff are taping the episode this week, along with popular host John Walsh.

“We’re going to shoot all day today, and we’re going to shoot tomorrow,” Walsh told KRQE News 13 Wednesday.

The west mesa investigation surrounds the remains of eleven people found buried in a once-remote desert area now being developed for homes. The remains include one woman carrying her unborn fetus.

Police and the Office of the Medical Investigator are trying to determine how the victims died and who may have killed them.

“I say it’s a serial killer,” Walsh said. “He’s dumped 11 women out there, and he’s still at large.”

Albuquerque police have yet to say the deaths are the result of a serial killer. An Albuquerque Police Department spokesperson told News 13 investigators are hoping the hour-long show will generate the kind of leads they need to move the investigation forward.

The show will include interviews with law enforcement and family members of the six victims identified so far.

“There are I think five women that have not been identified,” Walsh said. “Usually when bodies are dumped in the same place, it’s not 11 different perpetrators.

“It’s not usually copycats, sometimes there is, but usually it’s the work of a serial killer.”

Albuquerque police said they are looking into several possible suspects who may be responsible for the bodies buried on the West Mesa.

As searchers discovered the 13th body Friday at the site near Dennis Chavez and 118th Street, investigators said they are still unwilling to say a serial killer is responsible.

However, police also say a single person may have disposed of all the bodies they’ve found on the mesa.

One person police are looking at could be Lorenzo Montoya, a man killed in 2006–the same time prostitutes stopped vanishing from the streets of the Duke City.

Even back then, police said Montoya could be responsible for multiple murders.

Montoya drew the attention of police in December 2006 in what police call one of the most bizarre crimes most of them had seen.

The 39-year-old Montoya had taken a stripper to his West Side mobile home to dance for him. What Montoya didn’t know is that the dancer, 19-year-old Shericka Hill, had her boyfriend waiting outside.

After an hour, the boyfriend, 18-year-old Federick Williams went to check on Hill.

Williams and Montoya then confronted each other with guns and Montoya was shot dead. Williams then found Hill dead inside the mobile home.

Police said Montoya had tied Hill up with a rope made out of duct tape. Investigators said the way the rope was made suggested Montoya had done it before.

Another reason Montoya is getting attention is how close he lived to the dig site–about two miles.

Back in 2006, there were dirt trails that led directly from Montoya’s mobile home park to the dig site.

Police are careful not to say the person responsible for the recovered bodies is dead, but APD is also confident a serial killer is not on the streets of Albuquerque.

The bodies were found by chance, starting with one bone sticking out of the dirt on a desolate plot of land in the mesa west of Albuquerque, N.M.
wo are still unidentified with no names and no clues as to how they died. But a third has a name, an identity and a family.

Victoria Chavez was the first to be identified by New Mexico’s Office of the Medical Investigator, using dental records. It was her skeleton, along with partial remains of another, which touched off a massive search for more human remains in what is slated to become a new housing development.

For two weeks investigators, anthropologists and forensics experts have combed the area using hand tools, cadaver dogs and heavy machinery. Police have no idea how many bodies may be buried in the dirt or who dumped them there.

When she was last seen by her family in 2003, Chavez, 24, lived a hard life, logging arrests for prostitution and drugs. But in the months before her disappearance she had been living at home, working at a local burger joint and thinking about a career as a nurse.

”I was in denial,” her mother, Mary Gutierrez, told ABCNews.com of the day she learned the bones were her daughter’s. ”I said, ‘You must be wrong.”’

With the remains of three bodies found so far and tests pending on a fourth discovery, Albuquerque police aren’t quite sure what they’re dealing with.

The first bit of remains was found Feb. 2 by a woman walking her dog around the vacant lot. ”She just stumbled on one of the bones,” Albuquerque Police Officer Nadine Hamby told ABCNews.com. ”It’s not like everything was intact.”

When police responded to the scene and began digging, they found more bones. And the results surprised police — they came from two different people, including Chavez. About 48 hours later, bones from a third person were found several yards away.

Since then police and forensics experts have been at the site every day, searching the area mostly by hand and using rakes and shovels. The area totals about 92 acres, though the search has been narrowed to a few specific areas.

‘Truck Stop Killer’ Bruce Mendenhall

Symantha Winters, 48 – body found 06/06/07 in Lebanon TN; Sara Nicole Hulbert, 25 – body found 06/26/07; Nashville TN; Lucille “Gretna” Carter, 44 – body found 07/01/07, Birmingham AL; Carma Purpura, 31 – remains have not yet been located; last seen Indianapolis IN
Bruce Mendenhall, 56 – trucker and alleged serial-killer charged with criminal homicide in four murders; currently jailed in Tennessee; charges there; facing the death penalty; suspected in other states; additional charges August 2008; on trial for plotting to arrange the killings of the two detectives who arrested him and three witnesses in his murder case
Nashville, TN
Bruce Mendenhall, 56 – trucker and alleged serial-killer charged with criminal homicide in four murders; currently jailed in Tennessee; charges there; facing the death penalty; suspected in other states; additional charges August 2008; on trial for plotting to arrange the killings of the two detectives who arrested him and three witnesses in his murder case
Nashville, TN

A Davidson County Criminal Court jury convicted Bruce Mendenhall of three counts of solicitation to commit first-degree murder. Mendenhall was found not guilty on two other counts. Mendenhall was convicted of trying to hire a fellow prisoner to kill three people he knew and blamed in part for his arrest on a murder charge. He was found not guilty of trying to hire someone to kill two Metro police detectives.

The trial began on Monday, and closing arguments ended Friday afternoon. The jury deliberated about three hours before returning its verdict. Criminal Court Judge Steve Dozier will sentence Mendenhall on Feb. 26. Each count carries a sentence of 8-12 years.

Mendenhall is scheduled to be tried on May 10, 2010, in the June 2007 slaying of Sarah Hulbert, whose body was found at a truck stop near downtown Nashville.

The prosecution rested its case Thursday afternoon in the trial regarding Bruce Mendenhall’s alleged murders-for-hire. Tennessee Department of Correction inmate Michael Ray Jenkins spent all morning on the stand. He is a witness for the prosecution but has a long criminal history dating back to 1980 and is an admitted substance abuser.

In testimony, Jenkins related that he spent some time on the same cell block with Mendenhall and was aware that Mendenhall became upset when he discovered that another inmate had been secretly recording the inmates’ conversations with Mendenhall and cooperating with police and prosecutors.

In testimony, Jenkins said that Mendenhall became visibly angry and that Jenkins asked if there was anything he could do to help. Mendenhall allegedly told Jenkins that he wanted someone to kill two police officers — the police officers that had questioned him and then arrested him on murder charges.

On cross-examination, the defense asked why the cellmate waited to give information to police. “What I am asking you is when people don’t come forward with information right away, they don’t look credible, do they?” said the defense.

The prosecution rested its case Thursday afternoon in the trial regarding Bruce Mendenhall’s alleged murders-for-hire. Tennessee Department of Correction inmate Michael Ray Jenkins spent all morning on the stand. He is a witness for the prosecution but has a long criminal history dating back to 1980 and is an admitted substance abuser.

In testimony, Jenkins related that he spent some time on the same cell block with Mendenhall and was aware that Mendenhall became upset when he discovered that another inmate had been secretly recording the inmates’ conversations with Mendenhall and cooperating with police and prosecutors.

In testimony, Jenkins said that Mendenhall became visibly angry and that Jenkins asked if there was anything he could do to help. Mendenhall allegedly told Jenkins that he wanted someone to kill two police officers — the police officers that had questioned him and then arrested him on murder charges.

According to Jenkins, Mendenhall had indicated in phone calls Jenkins overheard that Mendenhall was about to come into some money, presumably from an insurance policy on Mendenhall’s wife, who had just died.

Mendenhall indicated that he was interested in having Jenkins do the murders for $15,000, said Jenkins, who said he had indicated that he wasn’t sure anyone would do the killing for that amount of money.

Jurors listened to hours of audio tapes Wednesday in the trial of accused serial killer Bruce Mendenhall. Prosecutors said the tapes prove the truck driver tried to have three witnesses killed in the Sara Hulbert case.

Mendenhall is accused of killing Hulbert and prostitutes in several states. Prosecutors put former Metro Jail inmate Roy McLaughlin on the stand Wednesday.

McLaughlin sent police a letter telling them Mendenhall wanted some witnesses killed. Police put a hidden microphone on him, not once but twice. There was video of the two talking in the recreation yard of the jail.

Prosecutors said Mendenhall wanted Lori Young, her son Ritchie Keim and David Powell killed. They’re witnesses in the Hulbert case.

Hulbert’s body was discovered at a downtown Nashville truck stop in the summer of 2007. A few weeks later police arrested Mendenhall at the same truck stop and charged him with the murder.

Testimony has started in the first trial of accused serial killer Bruce Mendenhall, the truck driver accused of murdering prostitutes in several states, including Tennessee. The trial is not about those murders, it’s about allegations that Mendenhall tried to hire someone to kill Metro detectives and witnesses in the Sara Hulbert case. The state has been presenting it’s case and calling witnesses since about 10 a.m. Tuesday. They’re relying on the testimony and recordings of two Metro jail inmates. One of them wore a wire.

The other inmate sent a letter to Metro Police Chief Ronal Serpas. The prosecution’s first witness was Metro Cold Case detective Pat Postiglione. The detective told jurors how he and Detective Lee Freeman arrested Mendenhall at the Truck Stops of America in July 2007.

Mendenhall was charged with killing Sara Hulbert. Her body was found at the same truck stop a few weeks earlier. Almost a year later in May 2008, Postiglione said he received a letter from Metro Jail inmate Roy McLaughlin.

The inmate wrote that Mendenhall wanted to kill three witnesses in the Hulbert case, Lori Young, Ritchie Keim and David Powell.

A former truck driver accused of being a serial killer is facing trial this week for trying to contract hits on police officers and witnesses tied to his bizarre legal situation. Bruce Mendenhall has been in jail in Davidson County, TN, since July 2007 after being charged for the deaths of four women, including Sara Hulbert, Symantha Winters, Lucille “Gretna” Carter and Carma Purpora. Police suspect his involvement in at least three other killings.

Before he is tried for those alleged crimes, prosecutors are trying Mendenhall for his alleged hiring of other inmates to kill five people, including two police detectives and three witnesses. Prosecutors say Mendenhall asked two cellmates to kill the five, who included witnesses Lori Young, David Powell and Richard Keim. Mendenhall also ordered hits on policemen Pat Postiglione and Mike Freemen, the two main investigators in Mendenhall’s original case.

Young spent four days riding in Mendenhall’s truck, and later moved to Albion, IL, and rented a house from Mendenhall. Powell, a convicted sex offender, and Keim both hung out with Mendenhall. Powell reportedly once dated Mendenhall’s daughter.

Since the arrest of Bruce D. Mendenhall of Albion, Ill., in July 2007 for the shooting death of a Nashville, Tenn., prostitute, officials have been monitoring closely the suspected serial killer’s mail and jailhouse phone calls. Mendenhall’s letters to and from his children and other relatives are now part of his growing case file.

Prosecutors in Nashville are trying to use evidence from those calls and letters to show that after Mendenhall was unsuccessful in establishing an alibi, he tried to hire two fellow inmates to kill people scheduled to testify against him in his upcoming murder trial.

Mendenhall’s defense team argued a motion last week to suppress the suspect’s letters to relatives, claiming the correspondence was “private” and not subject to seizure.

Since the arrest of Bruce D. Mendenhall of Albion, Ill., in July 2007 for the shooting death of a Nashville, Tenn., prostitute, officials have been monitoring closely the suspected serial killer’s mail and jailhouse phone calls. Mendenhall’s letters to and from his children and other relatives are now part of his growing case file.

Prosecutors in Nashville are trying to use evidence from those calls and letters to show that after Mendenhall was unsuccessful in establishing an alibi, he tried to hire two fellow inmates to kill people scheduled to testify against him in his upcoming murder trial.

Mendenhall’s defense team argued a motion last week to suppress the suspect’s letters to relatives, claiming the correspondence was “private” and not subject to seizure.

Investigators have given testimony that they obtained a subpoena to seize the letters. Mendenhall’s lawyer argued police needed a search warrant, and he has asked that the letters be barred from the trial. The judge is expected to rule on the motion later this week.

Since his arrest, Mendenhall has maintained that two former Albion men — Ritchie Keim and David Powell — have been following him around the country, killing several prostitutes at various truck stops.

Powell has told police he hadn’t seen Mendenhall since 2001 or 2002.

A Nashville, Tenn., judge has ruled that a 57-minute videotaped statement suspected serial killer Bruce Mendenhall made to police can be used at his upcoming trial on charges he tried to hire someone to kill two detectives and three witnesses in his upcoming murder trial.

Mendenhall is being held without bail in connection with the shooting death of Sarah Nicole Hulbert, 25, of Ashland City, Tenn. The truck driver from Albion, Ill., is also charged with murder in connection with the deaths of women whose bodies were found in Lebanon, Tenn., Birmingham, Ala., and Indianapolis.

In issuing the ruling, Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Steve Dozier ruled the two detectives who arrested Mendenhall at a truck stop in Nashville on July 12, 2007, did not violate his constitutional rights.

The solicitation for murder case against Mendenhall stems from statements from two inmates at the Nashville Criminal Justice Center.

In a letter written to Nashville Police Chief Ronald Serpas, inmate Michael Ray Jenkins, 55, details Mendenhall’s alleged request for Jenkins to kill the detectives who arrested Mendenhall — Pat Postiglione and Lee Freeman.

“He asked me if I wanted to earn some money,” Jenkins said. “Mr. Mendenhall offered to pay me $15,000 to kill two detectives who originally searched his truck. He wanted me to get the same caliber of pistol or gun in which he used in these murders and to shoot the two detectives with this gun so that it looked as if the person who did these murders of women was still out there.”

Jenkins, who was in custody on a probation violation offense, added Mendenhall told him that “now that his wife was dead that he had nothing more to lose and wanted vindication upon these two metro detectives on his murder case.”

Suspected serial killer Bruce D. Mendenhall of Albion, Ill., will go on trial in Nashville, Tenn., on Monday — not for murder, but for allegedly trying to hire hit men to kill two detectives and three witnesses in his upcoming murder trial.

During a hearing earlier this month, Mendenhall’s defense attorney argued that a videotaped interview with Nashville detectives in the hours after Mendenhall’s arrest for the murder of Sarah Nicole Hulbert should not be used in his solicitation of murder trial. The 57-minute interview, played for the first time in open court during the suppression of evidence hearing, shows Mendenhall blaming two Southern Illinois acquaintances for following him across the country, leaving a trail of dead bodies.

Mendenhall, 58, was arrested July 12, 2007, in Nashville. Detective Sgt. Pat Postiglione was acting on a hunch when he pulled into a truck stop to talk to the driver in the cab of a bright yellow semitrailer. Observing blood splatter on the door of the truck, Postiglione searched the vehicle and found a bag of bloody clothes.

The discovery resulted in Mendenhall’s arrest on a murder charge and launched an investigation that alleged the over-the-road trucker could be linked to the killing of seven or more women across the mid-South.

Early in the police interrogation, Mendenhall blamed two men that he claimed followed him across the country, committing murders.

The men, former Southern Illinois residents David Powell and Richie Kiem, face no charges in connection with Mendenhall’s alleged killings.

The jury hearing the case against accused serial killer Bruce Mendenhall next week will not be sequestered, a judge ruled Monday.

Attorneys for Mendenhall, facing trial next week on five counts of solicitation to commit murder for allegedly trying to have witnesses and detectives from his murder case killed, asked in court filings Monday to keep the jury sequestered for the duration of the trial because of the publicity it will receive.

Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Steve Dozier said the request was too late for him to make arrangements.

“If I grant that motion we couldn’t have a trial Monday,” Dozier said. “I’ve got to find a hotel block of 20-plus rooms, make security aware, arrange for meals and call a sufficient jury pool.”

The judge did agree to individual questioning of each potential jury member, to ensure that someone who is familiar with the case doesn’t taint the jury pool, and said his direction to jury members to avoid news coverage will suffice.

Mendenhall, a long-haul truck driver from Albion, Ill., faces the death penalty in the June 2007 killing of Sara Hulbert. He also faces charges in three states in the slayings of four women. Investigators believe Mendenhall preyed on prostitutes who frequented truck stops and may be responsible for the deaths of at least six women. He has not been tried in any of the cases.

For the first time we hear from accused serial killer Bruce Mendenhall. It’s an interview Mendenhall’s lawyers do not want jurors to hear. Police said Mendenhall killed seven prostitutes across the U.S. including one in Nashville and one in Lebanon.

The Illinois truck driver spoke with Metro Police Detective Pat Postiglione just hours after he was arrested in Nashville.

Metro has charged Mendenhall with killing Sara Hulbert. Her body was found at the Travel America truck stop in Downtown Nashville.

He blamed the murders on two men he said were following him from truck stop to truck stop.

Mendenhall talked about several murders and how some of the bodies ended up inside his 18-wheeler. Police said they have lots of physical evidence linking Mendenhall to the murders.

It was a long discussion in court Monday, just a week before Bruce Mendenhall is scheduled to stand trial on charges of trying to kill three witnesses and the two detectives.

Those detectives are the lead investigators in the murder case of Sara Hulbert, who Mendenhall is also charged with killing.

“I noticed some blood, a few drops of blood on the driver’s side door,” said Sgt. Pat Postiglione.

The defense questioned two Metro detectives about their actions on July 12, 2007, the day Mendenhall was arrested in connection with Hulbert’s death. Postiglione testified about what he found in Mendenhall’s truck at a Nashville truck stop.

“I noticed a large trash bag … between the bed and the driver’s seat, and I looked inside that bag, and I noticed what appeared to be blood-soaked items inside that bag,” he said.

At first, Postiglione said, Mendenhall had no explanation, but he later told more.

“He claimed not to be involved but claimed that these other people did it, and he claimed that they somehow knew what truck stop he would be at, show up at same truck stop, somehow find his weapon and kill the victims,” said Postiglione.

Mendenhall’s attorneys want those statements thrown out.

The defense questioned why Mendenhall was in custody for more than 2½ hours before his Miranda rights were read. But the state felt Mendenhall freely made those statements after his rights were read.

The defense also wants to suppress evidence from a wiretap conversation between two inmates. One inmate told the other about committing murders for money.

The defense argues the inmates were never identified by name so they can’t be sure the one talking about murder is Mendenhall, as the prosecution contends.

Prosecutors feel it shows Mendenhall’s motivation for why he wants the witnesses and officers killed.

Accused serial killer Bruce Mendenhall was frustrated because he couldn’t line up alibis for a Nashville killing, prosecutors allege, and turned to soliciting the deaths of detectives and witnesses.

The state is trying to use evidence from letters and phone calls made by Mendenhall from prison to show the jury their theory of the crime: that after he couldn’t locate an alibi, real or fake, he turned to a murder plot to get rid of the people who would testify against him in the Sara Hulbert murder case.

A judge will decide whether to allow a jury to hear the evidence — hundreds of letters to family and pen pals talking about his need for an alibi as well as several recorded phone calls — in the trial scheduled to begin Nov. 16.

“All of this is relevant to his frame of mind,” prosecutor Rachel Sobrero said. “He’s trying to find an alibi. That doesn’t work. Months later, he’s hiring people to kill the witnesses.”

Hulbert was found dead in June 2007 at an East Nashville truck stop. Police arrested Mendenhall at the same truck stop less than three weeks later and said DNA evidence in his truck linked him to the murder.

In August 2008, Mendenhall was indicted on five counts of solicitation of murder for allegedly trying to hire two separate prison inmates to kill witnesses and Metro police detectives. One of the inmates, Roy McLaughlin, was wearing a wire.

Defense attorneys representing accused serial killer Bruce Mendenhall have asked for a delay in his Nashville murder trials, a postponement that could have a ripple effect on his other cases and the victims’ families who believe Mendenhall killed their loved ones.

Mendenhall faces the death penalty in Nashville in the killing of Sara Hulbert, who was 25 when she was found shot to death at a North First Street truck stop. Investigators believe Mendenhall, a long haul trucker, preyed on prostitutes who frequented truck stops and may be responsible for the deaths of at least six women.

While in jail, Mendenhall was charged with five counts of solicitation of murder on allegations that he tried to have two Metro detectives and three potential witnesses killed.

Mendenhall’s attorneys have asked that the two trials scheduled — for the solicitation charges in September and Hulbert’s death in January — be postponed because one of his attorneys is expecting a baby the week the first trial is scheduled. A request to hold two separate trials for the solicitation could also slow down progress to the capital case, now scheduled for January 2010.

“Death penalty cases are extremely serious, and we need to spend as much time as we can preparing for the trial,” said Dawn Deaner, Metro’s public defender. One of the attorneys assisting Deaner with Mendenhall’s cases is expecting the baby.