Joyce Fienberg. Richard Gottfried. Rose Mallinger. Jerry Rabinowitz. Cecil and David Rosenthal. Bernice and Sylvan Simon. Daniel Stein. Melvin Wax. Irving Younger.
That Robert Bowers shot and killed those 11 Jewish congregants at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 was never truly in dispute.
Nor was there doubt that he shot and wounded six others, irrevocably changed myriad lives, and permanently scarred the city’s Jewish community.
Still, there were tears and heavy exhales Friday when a jury found him guilty of all 63 federal charges against him. Many had likely been held back since Oct. 27, 2018.
Survivors, friends and family from the three congregations — Tree of Life, Dor Hadash and New Light — squeezed into the three short benches in the fifth floor courtroom to hear in person the guilty verdict. Others watched via a private live feed in another courtroom.
“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 began at sundown Friday.
Family and friends of the 11 congregants slain by Bowers remained largely silent throughout the verdict as U.S. District Judge Robert J. Colville read each individual charge aloud.
Bowers, too, remained quiet. Judge Colville asked him to stand and face the jurors as they entered the room, and he did. He stared downward toward the defense table as the judge repeated “guilty” after each charge.
Jurors received the case about 2:30 p.m. Thursday after 11 days of testimony and arguments. They signaled to Judge 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 blue stress balls and hard candy.
Inside the courtroom, there was silence as Judge Colville began reading.
“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 Wax. Irving Younger.
Guilty.
“Every day for the past four and a half years, I’ve tried to look for the helpers: the public safety department and law enforcement officers, the attorneys, our fellow Pittsburghers who have continued to offer their care and support day in and day out,” said Alan Hausman, president of the Tree of Life congregation, in a callback to a Fred Rogers quote.
“I am thankful for everyone who got us to this day,” he said.
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. As he left the courtroom after the verdict, he turned a hardened, cold stare toward the shooter.
To relive the attack — to be right there as survivors described their terror — was difficult, said Jeffrey Finkelstein, president and chief executive of the Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh.
“I can personally speak about how emotional this was to be in there, to be in the same room as the person who committed this heinous antisemitic crime,” he said.
The sentencing phase of the trial will begin June 26. That will perhaps be even harder, said Stephen Cohen, co-president of the New Light congregation.
“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,” he said.
Sentencing will come in two phases. Jurors will hear weeks of testimony. From prosecutors, the abject horror of the crime, its effect on survivors and the holes left in their lives. Defense attorneys will likely offer evidence of mental illness or neurological issues. They will recreate every aspect of the shooter’s life in a bid to save it.
Defense attorneys have never disputed Bowers’ guilt.
“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.”
Prosecutors, already, have put the extent of the carnage on full display. For 11 days, they presented jurors with tearful testimony from survivors, with crime scene and autopsy photos, and with frantic 911 calls from congregants inside the synagogue.
Their first piece of evidence was Bernice Simon’s frantic 911 call from her usual spot in the pews with her husband of 60 years, Sylvan. They’d been married in the synagogue decades earlier.
The recording captured her panicked pleas for help, her terror as more shots were fired, and her final breaths.
For upward of 40 minutes, Rabbi Myers stayed on the line with a 911 call-taker. One hand gripped the phone, and the other gripped the door knob of the small bathroom in which he took shelter. The door didn’t lock, he told jurors. Perhaps if he could sense the shooter coming, he said, he could fight back.
The recording captured his quiet prayers, his recitation of the final confessional. He expected to die, he testified.
Jurors saw the man who has become the living face of the attack — confident and with an eye toward the future in every public appearance — break down on the stand. Prosecutors asked him if he ever saw Joyce Fienberg again, if he ever saw Rose Mallinger again, Cecil or David Rosenthal, Bernice or Sylvan Simon. He wept harder each time he answered “no.”
Survivors told jurors of the absolute terror they each felt from their respective hiding places. Carol Black and Barry Werber hid in a storage area off of the New Light sanctuary. They saw Melvin Wax gunned down in front of them, staying so still that the shooter did not see them in the darkness. Ms. Black told of hoping her brother, Richard Gottfried, had survived. He didn’t.
Mr. Leger described his quiet prayers and preparation to die as he bled to death on the synagogue stairs. He was a nurse — he knew he was dying. He’d made peace with it when he took a chance and reached toward a leg that ultimately belonged to tactical medic Justin Sypolt
SWAT officers and tactical paramedics described a trail of destruction beginning at the main entrance to the massive synagogue where Mr. 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 first responders choked back emotion throughout their testimony, speaking about the death Mr. Bowers left in his wake.
Prosecutors rested their case with the horror that mirrored their opening testimony.
Andrea Wedner spoke clearly and with confidence throughout her roughly 40-minute testimony. She did not cry. She’d asked only that the recording of her 911 call not be played while she was still on the stand. On it, she could hear herself being shot, she could hear her 97-year-old mother, Rose Mallinger being shot, and she could hear her mother dying.
The heart-wrenching recording captured Ms. Wedner’s terrified voice. She asked the call-taker to please hurry.
“He keeps shooting and shooting,” she said.
The recording captures her mother whimpering, scared in the background. Ms. Wedner tried to comfort her, to shush her — to keep her safe.
Then, there are loud, booming sounds. There is screaming, wailing — the kind driven by physical pain but also anguish. There is loud, deep, ragged breathing that, after a minute or two, drops off. Someone says, “Oh, God.”
The call stops after that.
Carole Zawatsky, chief executive of the Tree of Life, said the finding of guilt will not fill the voids left behind in the wake of Oct. 27, 2018.
“While the verdict will not bring back your loved ones who were so violently killed, my hope is that today provides some level or comfort and helps to ease the pain, even if ever so slightly,” she said. “May their memories always be a blessing.”
Staff writer Jordan Anderson contributed.
Megan Guza: mguza@post-gazette.com
First Published: June 16, 2023, 1:24 p.m.
Updated: June 17, 2023, 11:16 p.m.
