An Oklahoma jury is considering whether a man charged with killing his neighbor in an alleged hate crime should spend the rest of his life in prison.
Stanley Vernon Majors, 63, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Khalid Jabara, 37. He also faces three misdemeanor charges. A jury in Tulsa began deliberating Wednesday afternoon.
Authorities said Majors walked next door, up the front steps of his neighbor’s porch, and shot and killed Jabara in August 2016. They say he did it because the Jabara family is from Lebanon.
During the trial, Majors’ team built an insanity defense. His attorneys said this is not a case about hate, race or religion, but about a man so mentally ill he viewed the family next door as a threat. Majors feared the Jabaras, whom he thought were Muslims, would harm him because he is gay.
Psychiatrist Jason Beaman testified for the defense on Monday that Majors has schizophrenia.
“Majors was not able to understand the consequences of his actions” at the time of the shooting, he said.
Suspect also accused of running over victim’s mother
In September 2015, Majors allegedly ran down Jabara’s mother, Haifa Jabara, with his car. She suffered a brain hemorrhage, broken ribs, a broken ankle, a damaged shoulder and a broken bone in her arm.
Majors was charged in connection with the hit and run and was jailed as he awaited trial. He was eventually released on bail.
Two months later, before the hit and run case could go to trial, Haifa Jabara heard on the phone the sound of her son being killed.
Jabara’s parents testified on the second day of Major’s murder trial.
Haifa Jabara recalled how her son had a good relationship with Stephen Schmauss, who lived next door, until Majors moved in with Schmauss.
Haifa Jabara said Majors, who later married Schmauss, was hateful and prejudiced against their Lebanese ethnicity. She said he once threatened to “kill us all.”
Jabara told the court her son called her the day of the shooting to tell her not to come home because Majors had a gun.
Majors only spoke once during the trial, to tell the judge he wouldn’t testify.
‘Mooslems’
The Jabara family previously told CNN that Majors would stand on the property line between their homes and shout, “Dirty Arabs!”
He called the family “Mooslems” and “dirty Lebanese,” the Jabaras said — even though they’re Christians who fled civil war and religious persecution in Lebanon decades ago.