ORLANDO, Fla. _ Defense attorneys for Noor Salman began calling witnesses Monday morning as they seek to convince a jury that her husband, Omar Mateen, was living a secret life prior to carrying out the 2016 mass shooting at Pulse nightclub.
The testimony comes hours after Salman's defense filed a motion seeking to have the case dismissed, due to evidence her lawyers argue prosecutors failed to disclose before the trial begain _ including that Mateen's father was an informant for the FBI.
The defense's first witness was a longtime friend of Mateen's, referred to only as "Nemo."
On June 11, 2016, Salman and Mateen both told Mateen's parents that he could not come to a mosque for Ramadan dinner because he was dining with Nemo instead. In reality, Nemo was in Baltimore at the time _ and Mateen was preparing for mass murder.
"I was very shocked and horrified, but I wasn't surprised because I know he had used that excuse before, seeing me," Nemo said.
Prosecutors argue Salman and Mateen worked together to concoct the cover story they gave Mateen's parents. Salman's defense _ which called Nemo as its first witness today _ says Mateen lied to his wife as well as his parents, telling her he was going to see his friend in the hours before the mass shooting at Pulse.
The defense contends Mateen had previously claimed to be with Nemo when he was actually cheating on his wife with other women. In his testimony today, Nemo said Mateen used to talk about cheating on Salman when he and Nemo would go to the gym together in 2015.
His testimony lasted less than 10 minutes
The defense also called two of Salman's childhood friends to testify, as well as two women who said they had trysts with Mateen. Both of the women testified under pseudonyms.
One woman, who described their relationship as "brief flirtation," said she met Mateen because her best friend lived in the subdivision where Mateen was a security guard.
She knew he had a child but did not know he was still married.
A second woman said she met Mateen on Plenty of Fish, an online dating service, and did not know he was married. She said they met at her apartment twice. "I found out that he was 29 years old. He told me he was 40," she said. "And he told me his father would not approve of me because I was Jewish."
Jurors also heard from Laurie Jaber, who was a bridesmaid at the couple's wedding. Jaber said she last spoke to Salman four days before the Pulse shooting. Salman was excited to have recently passed her driving test, and because of a planned trip to California.
"She was very ecstatic, very thrilled," Jaber said.
Another friend, testifying under a pseudonym, said Salman called her twice on June 11, 2016, the eve of the massacre. Salman asked the woman, who lives in California, what sizes her kids were, so that she could buy them presents to bring with her on the trip.
In the second call, Salman spoke about being asked by Mateen's family to go to the mosque that night. Mateen wasn't going, and Salman didn't want to go, either, the friend testified.
"Her voice sounded different, she sounded upset or disappointed," the woman said.
Mateen's father was the subject of motion by Salman's defense late Sunday, asking for the case against to be thrown out or declared a mistrial and arguing prosecutors failed to disclose that Seddique Mateen is a former confidential informant for the FBI.
Omar Mateen's father was also investigated after agents assigned to the shooting case found receipts for money transfers to Turkey and Afghanistan, according to the motion filed by Salman's defense. U.S. District Judge Paul Byron said he would consider the motion later today.
"I'm not going to address it right now," he said. "It's gonna take too much time."
Prosecutors didn't share that information with defense lawyers in the case against Mateen's widow, according to the defense motion. Now Salman's lawyers are seeking a mistrial or dismissal of the charges against her.
"It is apparent from the Government's belated disclosure that Ms. Salman has been defending a case without a complete set of facts and evidence that the Government was required to disclose," attorney Fritz Scheller argued in the court filing.
Mateen's father, Seddique Mateen, was on the government's witness list but was never called to testify. His wife, Shahla Mateen, testified. According to the newly filed motion, Seddique Mateen acted as an informant at various points in time between January 2005 and June 2016.
However, he also was found to have made money transfers to Turkey and Afghanistan during the period between March 16, 2016 and June 5, 2016 _ a week before the Pulse attack.
Had Salman's defense team known about those transfers, Scheller argued, they would have "investigated whether a tie existed between Seddique Mateen and his son, specifically whether Mateen's father was involved in or had foreknowledge of the Pulse attack."
That would be relevant to Salman's defense, Scheller said, because the government has claimed she helped her husband concoct a cover story to tell his parents about where he was going the night prior to the early-morning mass shooting at Pulse.
If Seddique Mateen had "some level of foreknowledge" about his son't plot, a cover story "would have been completely unnecessary," the motion contends.
The information about the elder Mateen was disclosed to defense attorneys by prosecutor Sara Sweeney in an email Sunday, after a hearing Friday with information about Seddique Mateen. The defense argues prosecutors violated an evidence disclosure law by not informing them sooner.
Defense lawyers may call Seddique Mateen to testify.
In the aftermath of the Pulse attack, Seddique Mateen told CNN he was "not aware of" his son being a terrorist, though he considered the mass shooting an act of terror. ""his is the worst thing that can happen for a father to see a son act like this," he said in a June 14, 2016 interview.
Born in Afghanistan, Seddique Mateen prior to the massacre had worked as a fringe political commentator, often railing against Pakistan and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, according to a report by Reuters.
Salman, 31, is accused of obstruction of justice and aiding and abetting Omar Mateen's providing material support to a foreign terrorism organization.
Her defense attorneys have said they plan to tell jurors that Salman was diagnosed with PTSD because of Mateen's domestic abuse. In her opening statements, defense attorney Linda Moreno said Salman is a "trusting, simple" person with a low IQ, who did not know she would be widowed because her husband became "a martyr for a cause that she didn't support."
Prosecutors rested their case on Thursday. Over the course of a week, jurors heard from survivors of the June 12, 2016 attack, FBI agents who talked to Salman in the hours afterward, and from Mateen's mother and sister.
U.S. District Judge Paul Byron told jurors last week they could expect closing arguments on Wednesday, which means a verdict could come by the end of the week.
