Taheri-Azar wants his trial over with

Defendant tires of appearances

CHAPEL HILL -- After his March arrest, the young man accused of driving a rented SUV through a lunchtime crowd on UNC-Chapel Hill's campus seemed to enjoy the media circus at his court appearances.

But during a routine hearing Tuesday, Mohammed Taheri-Azar, 23, said he now wants to make as few trips as possible to the Orange County Courthouse.

"Personally, your honor, I'd like to get this whole court trial over as soon as possible," he told Superior Court Judge Carl Fox.

Taheri-Azar is charged with nine counts of attempted first-degree murder and nine counts of felonious assault. None of the nine people struck March 3, 2006, with a rented Jeep Cherokee suffered life-threatening injuries.

Minutes after the incident, Taheri-Azar called 911 to turn himself in. On the phone and in letters to the media, he said he aimed to kill people in the name of Allah and to avenge the United States' treatment of Muslims in the Middle East.

Those comments prompted the FBI to investigate the incident for possible terrorism charges, but Orange-Chatham District Attorney Jim Woodall has said further charges are unlikely.

At first, Taheri-Azar spoke outside and during his court appearances, answering reporters' questions and once telling a judge that he planned to plead guilty.

Last year, he tried to fire his lawyer, Public Defender James Williams, and refused to talk with psychiatrists and psychologists sent to evaluate him.

Fox told Taheri-Azar he couldn't represent himself unless he could prove he was competent to do so by speaking with the mental-health professionals. Since then, Taheri-Azar has been more reticent in court and agreed to keep his lawyer.

On Tuesday afternoon, a few local media representatives were present when Taheri-Azar, in a brown suit and tie, walked from a sheriff's cruiser into the courthouse. But he ignored their questions with a tight-lipped smile.

Inside the courtroom, his mother, father and sisters sat behind him.

Most of the short court appearance was spent talking about evidence and other background information and interviews collected by the FBI that the defense has requested but not yet received.

Taheri-Azar, who is being held at Raleigh's Central Prison in lieu of $5.5 million bail, is expected to return to court in three weeks to check on the progress of getting that information and to enter a plea.

Williams said previously he expects Taheri-Azar to enter a plea of not guilty.