CHARLESTON, S.C. — Dylann Roof’s mother suffered a heart attack not long after prosecutors described how her son planned a cold and calculated killing of nine black church members in a racially motivated attack, the white man’s attorney said in court documents Thursday.
Roof’s mother collapsed and said ‘‘I’m sorry’’ several times on Wednesday as family members and court security came to help her during the opening of her son’s federal death penalty trial. Roof’s attorney mentioned the heart attack in court documents asking for a mistrial, saying a survivor’s testimony was so emotional that ‘‘spectators and even court personnel — including members of the prosecution and defense — were crying with her.’’
The documents didn’t give the mother’s current condition.
Roof’s attorney argued that the testimony from shooting survivor Felicia Sanders was inappropriate because it contained a statement on what Roof’s sentence should be.
Sanders told jurors about the horror of seeing her son and her aunt shot to death and sheltering with her granddaughter beneath a table. At one point, she looked across the courtroom toward Roof and called him ‘‘evil, evil, evil.’’
Defense attorney David Bruck asked her on cross-examination whether she remembered Roof saying anything in the aftermath of the shootings.
‘‘He said he was going to kill himself,’’ she said. ‘‘I was counting on that. There’s no place on Earth for him other than the pit of hell.’’
US District Judge Richard Gergel denied the mistrial request and said he interpreted Sanders’ testimony as ‘‘a religious comment.’’ He instructed jurors that any decision on guilt or a sentence is up to the jury — not the attorneys or witnesses in the case.
Also Thursday, jurors watched surveillance footage of Roof leaving a Charleston church with a gun in his hand. Charleston police Sergeant Dan English showed the jury more than 20 video clips taken from cameras at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church on June 17, 2015.
Roof is charged with 33 federal counts in the case, including hate crimes.
