Taheri-Azar admits he tried to kill

The former UNC-CH student takes a plea deal that drops assault counts

HILLSBOROUGH -- Mohammed Taheri-Azar has taken responsibility for his actions, but the UNC-Chapel Hill community is still looking for answers.

Taheri-Azar pleaded guilty Tuesday to nine counts of attempted first-degree murder for driving a rented sport utility vehicle into a lunchtime crowd on campus in March 2006.

Taheri-Azar, 25, will likely face 21 to 33 years in prison. Superior Court Judge Carl Fox scheduled his sentencing for 9:30 a.m. on Aug. 26.

As part of a plea bargain, prosecutors dropped nine counts of aggravated felonious assault.

According to a plea transcript, Fox indicated he would be willing to consolidate the nine charges into two attempted murder charges for sentencing purposes. The maximum penalty for each charge is 40 years in prison, but Taheri-Azar's sentence will be lower because he has no prior felony record.

After the attacks, Taheri-Azar, a U.S. citizen born in Iran, claimed he was following God in avenging the U.S. government's killing of Muslims around the world.

Later, he called his court-appointed attorney, Public Defender James Williams, a "moron" and refused to cooperate with psychologists. A judge ordered a psychiatric evaluation, which found him competent to stand trial in June 2006.

He had another mental evaluation this past spring, but the results were sealed and may not be released unless Williams thinks they would support a lesser sentence for his client.

Taheri-Azar was released from Dorothea Dix Hospital last month and is in custody at Central Prison.

His father and two sisters attended Tuesday's hearing but left before reporters could talk with them. Neither Taheri-Azar nor his family spoke in court.

Because Taheri-Azar has been unpredictable, District Attorney Jim Woodall wanted to separate the sentencing from the hearing so the victims could be sure he was pleading guilty before arranging their schedules to appear in court. Woodall expects seven of the nine victims to testify about their physical and emotional injuries at the sentencing hearing.

Karen Harmon, the only victim to attend the hearing Tuesday, declined to comment. Woodall said her wrist was broken and her knee bruised when the Jeep Cherokee hit her.

The incident March 3, 2006, at The Pit, a gathering spot outside the student union, shocked the campus and made national headlines. Three days later, a small group of students protested the university administration's response. They carried signs that said, "Call it what it is," and "Support love, condemn terror."

Then-Chancellor James Moeser stopped short of calling the attack terrorism. "I agree, this could feel like terrorism, especially if you're standing in front of a Jeep that's heading toward you trying to kill you," he said at the time. "As we have investigated this, we've come more and more to the conclusion that this was one individual acting alone in a criminal act."

People interviewed on campus Tuesday still find the incident dumbfounding.

Harold Smith, a Chapel Hill resident who was strolling through campus, said he didn't believe Taheri-Azar's claim to have acted out of his Muslim faith.

"That is nutty, in my opinion," said Smith, who wasn't sure what to think about the possible 33-year sentence. "He didn't kill anybody. He injured some people, so it's hard to say."

Jonathan Risner, a graduate student and teaching assistant in comparative literature, said the punishment seems appropriate for a crime that left his undergraduate students puzzled.

"College campuses can be bubbles," he said. "Of course someone's going to feel violated."

English professor Linda Wagner-Martin said the university let Taheri-Azar down by graduating him in December 2005 without recognizing his mental illness.

"Somehow he fell through the cracks in a way that most old English teachers don't like to think can happen," she said.