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DALLAS (AP) — An 18-year-old was convicted of murder Monday in the killing of an Iraqi man who was taking photos of his first snowfall in Texas.
Nykerion Nealon faces up to life in prison in the death of Ahmed Al-Jumaili, 36, who was outside his Dallas apartment complex taking pictures of snow with his wife and brother on the night of March 4, 2015, when he was fatally shot.
Police said at the time that Nealon told officers he had been hunting for people he thought had shot at his girlfriend's nearby apartment complex that evening. Police said they didn't believe Nealon knew Al-Jumaili.
Defense attorney Russell Wilson argued that his client was at the apartments when the shooting took place but someone else pulled the trigger.
But a friend of Nealon's testified that Nealon pulled the trigger, and prosecutors said Nealon had searched online for how to beat a murder charge and how to survive prison shortly after the shooting, according to local media.
The jury deliberated for two hours before finding Nealon guilty, WFAA-TV reported. The sentencing phase is set to continue Tuesday.
Al-Jumaili had fled violence in Iraq to reunite with his wife, who had moved to Dallas earlier. He saved money for more than a year for the move by providing Internet connections to Iraqi homes, his father-in-law, Mohammed Altaae, told The Associated Press last year.
"For a young man and a young woman, oh, God, so many dreams together," Altaae said. "They wanted to have children and educate them well."
Al-Jumaili had been in Texas just three weeks when he was killed.
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