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The Sodhi Trial Continues: Court Told Defendant Hated Arabs
09/05/2003
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0905roque05.html
Defendant hated Arabs, court told
Co-workers testify in Sikh-killing trial
Jim Walsh
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 5, 2003 12:00 AM
Former co-workers of Frank Roque described him in court Thursday as a narrow-minded man consumed by hatred toward Middle Eastern immigrants and bent on revenge after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Roque, 44, has admitted gunning down Balbir Singh Sodhi, 49, a Sikh immigrant from India who wore a turban, five days after the attacks. His lawyers say Roque is mentally ill and heard voices telling him to "kill the devil."
Robert Holschue, a structural aircraft repairman who formerly worked with Roque at a Boeing repair facility, said Roque "expressed his intense anger toward Middle Easterners of all sorts" after the attacks.
Roque said that "all those Middle Easterners should die, their kids should die, our government should send them back, they have no right to be here," Holschue testified at the Maricopa County Superior Court in Mesa.
He said Roque also told him that the U.S. government "has a tendency to give people from other countries money to start businesses" and that native-born Americans don't have that opportunity.
But Holschue said, "I told Frank that these people are looking to escape oppression in their countries and they're looking for the same freedoms as our ancestors. He didn't particularly appreciate it."
Barry Healan, another co-worker, testified, "it appeared to me he wanted me to agree with him about the Arab people. I did not agree."
But both witnesses said they never heard Roque say that he planned to kill anyone himself.
William Courtney Jr., a host and portrait artist at the Wild Hare sports bar in Mesa, said Roque lashed out at Middle Eastern immigrants the same afternoon as Singh Sodhi's slaying.
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