CHARLESTON, S.C. _ Convicted killer Dylann Roof has worn into court shoes with racist symbols drawn onto them as recently as Monday, a federal agent testified on Friday.
FBI agent Joseph Hamski also told the jury, which is to decide the 22-year-old's fate, that Roof targeted the African-American Emanuel AME Church because it would have a big impact.
Federal prosecutor Richard Burns asked Hamski what Roof had meant by a statement in his jailhouse diary that he wanted to take an action that "would make the biggest wave."
Hamski, the lead investigator in the slaying case, said Roof had meant that he would kill blacks "at a significant church."
The discovery about the shoes came as Hamski, was recalled to the witnesses stand, having testified during the guilt phase of Roof's death penalty trial. Last month, Roof was convicted of killing nine black parishioners at the church in June 2015.
The agent's testimony marked the third day of testimony in the sentencing phase of the federal hate crimes trial. The case might go to the jury Tuesday.
Hamski discussed the shoes after the prosecution introduced an image of Roof's jail shoes, which had a small drawing of a Celtic cross, a form of a Christian cross that is often used to represent white nationalism and supremacy. The photograph was taken in August 2015, Hamski said.
It's unclear whether any witness or jurors saw the shoes while he was wearing them in court. Monday's hearing was a closed-door session about Roof's mental competence to represent himself. But some witnesses were in the courtroom before the hearing was closed to the public. Judge Richard Gergel ultimately ruled that Roof was competent to decide that he didn't want a lawyer arguing for him in the sentencing phase.
Hamski disclosed new details to the jury of Roof's obsession with white racial purity, white supremacy, white nationalism and various symbols those movements use that are based on Nazi symbols used by the Germans in World War II.
The agent read more passages from messages Roof had posted on a white supremacist website, which included a private message to a user in which Roof said white women who date African-American men are "really victims."
"They have been told its(sic) ok, even cool, to date black men," Roof wrote. "They have been told their whole life that blacks are the same... So yes, they are race-traitors, but I don't have this hate for them that others seem to have. I actually feel sorry for them."
Hamski also explained that symbols found in Roof's jail journal were racist and represented white nationalism.
When it was Roof's turn to cross-examine Hamski, Roof had no questions for the agent.
Malcolm Graham, brother of Cynthia Hurd, who was killed at Emanuel AME church, was the prosecution's second witness of the day. Graham said his sister was the matriarch of the family. When she would call and his children would answer the phone, they would say, "Your mother is calling," he said.
"When I found out she passed that night, I was at a total loss," said Graham, who lives in Charlotte, N.C., and is a former state senator. "And so, my life is empty. "There's something missing. And I can't go to the store and replace it."
