February 15, 1996
Web posted at: 11:50 p.m. EST
DEDHAM, Massachusetts (CNN) -- A witness for the prosecution threatened in court Thursday to "get" John C. Salvi III, who is charged with murdering two receptionists and wounding five others in attacks on two abortion clinics in December 1994.
David Fairbanks, who testified that Salvi fired at him three times and missed, glared at Salvi from the stand during his testimony and hurled obscenities at the defendant.
As Fairbanks walked from the witness stand past the defense table, he pointed at Salvi and said, "I'm going to get you ... "
Fairbanks was hurriedly ushered out by bailiffs; Salvi was seen raising a cup of water as in a toast.
Salvi's attorneys have admitted that he killed Lee Anne Nichols, 38, and Shannon Lowney, 25, and are planning an insanity defense.
Salvi's lawyer, J.W. Carney, has suggested that his client's actions were motivated by delusions of a conspiracy against Roman Catholics rather than by anti-abortion beliefs. The shootings, the defense lawyer holds, were triggered by the murders of four Catholic priests in Algeria three days earlier.
Prosecutors say Salvi's actions were the work of a man who was in full control of his senses, and that the 23-year-old former hairdresser had mapped out a crime plan with deliberation.
Fairbanks testified that Salvi shouted in a voice "like a preacher" during the shootings, saying "This is what you get! You should pray the rosary" as he pumped 10 bullets into Nichols as she begged for her life.
"Then he turned around and ran like a chicken," said Fairbanks, who was entering the Preterm Health Services clinic as people were fleeing.
Another witness, security guard Richard Seron, said he was working in a supply room when he heard a series of shots.
"After a few seconds I heard 'no, no, no, no, no' -- a series of entreaties. I believe it was the voice of Lee Anne Nichols," Seron told prosecutor John Kivlan.
Seron described Salvi's voice as high-pitched and loud, yet "eloquent" and "like a preacher," and recalled that the gunman's eyebrows were arched, his brow furrowed, his mouth taut and his eyes unblinking. He said he exchanged gunfire with Salvi.
Witness Jane Sauer, who was shot twice and wounded during the attack, said she sought refuge behind a pillar in the small, cramped office. "I rolled up in a little ball and hid," she said.
In the first cross-examination of the trial, Salvi's attorney closely questioned Seron, getting him to admit that he mistakenly identified a photograph shown to him as Salvi.
Seron said he saw Salvi picketing outside the clinic two to three weeks before the shooting. Yet under cross-examination, he conceded that he did not correctly identify Salvi from mug shots immediately after the attack.
Nearly a dozen witnesses and victims have identified Salvi as the gunman.
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AP contributed to this report.
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