Man Who Fatally Stabbed Woman on BART Platform Is Convicted of Murder

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/10/us/john-cowell-trial-nia-wilson.html

Version 0 of 1.

A Bay Area man who randomly stabbed two sisters on a commuter train platform in 2018, killing one and wounding the other in an attack with racial undertones, was convicted of first-degree murder on Tuesday.

A jury in Alameda County court also found the man, John Lee Cowell, 29, guilty of attempted murder and the special circumstances count of lying in wait, a form of premeditated homicide in which the victim is unsuspecting.

Mr. Cowell slashed the throat of Nia Wilson, 18, who died, and stabbed Letifah Wilson, 27, while they were boarding a Bay Area Rapid Transit train in Oakland, Calif., on July 22, 2018. Another sister, Tashiya Wilson, was with them when they were attacked, but was not injured.

In the trial’s next phase, which begins Wednesday, the jury must decide whether Mr. Cowell is criminally insane. He has a history of violence and mental illness.

Jonathan Davis, a lawyer for the Wilson family, said in a statement on Tuesday night that the family was “grateful for the hard work of the D.A.’s office and the jury’s decision.”

“This is part of the healing process,” he added.

A spokeswoman for the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the verdict Tuesday night because the trial was still in progress.

Christina Moore, the public defender for Mr. Cowell, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday night. Mr. Cowell had two prior felony convictions in Contra Costa County, including one for robbery, for which he served time in a state prison.

The sisters were returning from a family gathering when they got onto the same train as Mr. Cowell at the Concord BART station. About 30 minutes later, they all got off at MacArthur Station, about three miles north of downtown Oakland, which is where the attack took place. The stabbings were caught on surveillance cameras.

Mr. Cowell, who is white, was not charged with a hate crime, but family and friends of the sisters have said that they were targeted because they were black. During the trial, Mr. Cowell testified about getting into an altercation with a black woman a week earlier and was asked by the prosecutors about trying to provoke a fight with another black woman immediately after the stabbing.

Mr. Cowell said during the trial that the sisters were aliens and part of a gang that kidnapped his grandmother, according to news media reports.

He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, contending that he has schizophrenia. Mr. Cowell could be sentenced to life in prison if the jury rejected his insanity defense. Otherwise, he could be sent to a psychiatric hospital.

The stabbings rattled the Bay Area and led to renewed concerns about the safety of the BART transit system, which connects San Francisco with the East Bay and South Bay.

Nia Wilson’s family has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against BART.