In the courtroom battle over whether Mustafa Ali should live or die for murdering two armored-car guards in 2007, attorneys on both sides turned to psychiatrists yesterday.
The Common Pleas jury that will deliberate his fate also saw videotaped interviews of Ali's two young sons conducted by the Defender Association of Philadelphia, which is representing Ali. Some jurors smiled at the musings and colorful drawings of the bubbly boys - ages 9 and 6 - while others observed with stone faces.
Ali, 39, a once-promising Drexel University student, showed little reaction while watching his children express their love for him or at the testimony of the dueling doctors.
He was convicted last Wednesday of two counts of first-degree murder for fatally shooting Loomis guards William Widmaier, 65, and Joseph Alullo, 54, as they worked on an ATM machine at a Northeast bank Oct. 4, 2007.
Since Friday, the jurors have been hearing testimony that they will use to determine if Ali should be sentenced to death or to life in prison without parole. The panel of seven women and five men was expected to get the case today, after hearing closing statements from the defense and prosecution attorneys.
Defense witness Richard G. Dudley, a New York-based forensic psychiatrist in private practice, told the jury that Ali, 39, suffered from borderline personality disorder, as well as depressive disorder.
Borderline personality disorder - characterized by moodiness, impulsiveness, frantic fear of abandonment and unstable interpersonal relationships - was brought about by the neglect Ali suffered as a boy at the hands of his parents, Dudley said.
Clarence Watson, a forensic psychiatrist who practices in Pennsylvania and Delaware, was called as a rebuttal witness by Assistant District Attorney Michael Barry.
Watson said it was not likely that someone such as Ali was suffering with borderline personality disorder, given that he was a model student, employee and inmate while serving federal time for bank robbery in the 1990s.
A person suffering from the disorder, he said, "would have problems with all others in all aspects of their life."
The jury also heard from Ali's estranged wife, Lacole Ali, 28, who said her husband had $10,000 in the bank but was also behind on child-support payments the morning he committed the murders.
