Trial begins for ex-University of Arizona grad student accused of fatally shooting professor in 2022

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — A former University of Arizona graduate student accused of killing a professor on campus showed premeditation and intent in the 2022 fatal shooting, according to prosecutors.

Murad Dervish’s trial began Tuesday and is expected to last two weeks in Pima County Superior Court.

Dervish, 48, faces seven felony charges including first-degree murder in the death of Thomas Meixner, who was shot nine times inside a campus building on Oct. 5, 2022.

Meixner, 52, headed the university’s Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences and was an expert on desert water issues. Dervish had been a graduate student in the hydrology program.

Authorities said Dervish was banned from the school in January 2022 and later expelled for ongoing issues with professors after he received a bad grade.

“This isn’t a case about whether or not the defendant was the one who pulled the trigger and shot and killed Professor Meixner,” Deputy Pima County Attorney Hayley Weigold told jurors in her opening statement Tuesday, according to the Arizona Daily Star. “What it’s about is the intentional killing of Professor Meixner and knowing right from wrong.”

Attorneys for Dervish have chosen to wait to make their statement until after the state rests its case. They may be seeking an insanity defense.

But Weigold told the jury that Dervish fled the scene after the shooting so he knew that criminal act was wrong.

Dervish was arrested after Arizona state troopers stopped his car on a highway more than 120 miles (193 kilometers) northwest of Tucson.

Authorities said a loaded 9 mm handgun was found in the vehicle and the ammunition was consistent with the shell casings found at the shooting scene.

According to a criminal complaint, a flyer with a photograph of Dervish had been circulated to university staff in February 2022 with instructions to call 911 if he ever entered the Harshbarger Building, which houses the hydrology department.

The complaint also said Dervish was barred from being on school property and he had been the subject of several reports of harassment and threats to staff members working at Harshbarger.

Lawyers for Meixner’s family said Dervish had threatened the professor in the past and entered the building without being stopped or followed.

University President Robert Robbins said campus police tried to get Dervish charged two separate times before the shooting and took the complaints to Pima County prosecutors, but they were told there wasn’t enough evidence.

Meixner’s family filed a $9 million notice of claim — a precursor to a lawsuit — in March 2023, saying there were numerous ways the university failed to protect him and the rest of the community.

The school and the Arizona Board of Regents, which oversees the state’s three public universities, reached a $2.5 million settlement with Meixner’s family in January.

FILE - This undated photo provided Oct. 7, 2022, by the Pima County Sheriff's Office shows Murad Dervish. A jury was seated Tuesday, May 7, 2024, for the trial of Dervish, a former University of Arizona graduate student accused of fatally shooting a professor in 2022 after he was banned from campus because of harassment complaints. (Pima County Sheriff's Office via AP, File)

FILE - A memorial for University of Arizona professor Thomas Meixner is seen outside the school's Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences building in Tucson, Ariz., Oct. 14, 2022. A jury was seated Tuesday, May 7, 2024, for the trial of a former University of Arizona graduate student accused of fatally shooting Meixner in 2022 after he was banned from campus because of harassment complaints. (AP Photo/Terry Tang, File)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi suffered a “hard landing” on Sunday, Iranian state media reported, without immediately elaborating.

Raisi was traveling in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province. State TV said the incident happened near Jolfa, a city on the border with with the nation of Azerbaijan, some 600 kilometers (375 miles) northwest of the Iranian capital, Tehran.

Traveling with Raisi were Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, the governor of Iran's East Azerbaijan province and other officials, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. One local government official used the word “crash” to describe the incident, but he acknowledged to an Iranian newspaper that he had yet to reach the site himself.

Neither IRNA nor state TV offered any information on Raisi’s condition.

Rescuers were attempting to reach the site, state TV said, but had been hampered by poor weather conditions. There had been heavy rain and fog reported with some wind. IRNA called the area a "forest."

Raisi had been in Azerbaijan early Sunday to inaugurate a dam with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev. The dam is the third one that the two nations built on the Aras River. The visit came despite chilly relations between the two nations, including over a gun attack on Azerbaijan's Embassy in Tehran in 2023, and Azerbaijan's diplomatic relations with Israel, which Iran's Shiite theocracy views as its main enemy in the region.

Iran flies a variety of helicopters in the country, but international sanctions make it difficult to obtain parts for them. Its military air fleet also largely dates back to before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Raisi, 63, is a hard-liner who formerly led the country’s judiciary. He is viewed as a protégé of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and some analysts have suggested he could replace the 85-year-old leader after his death or resignation from the role.

Raisi won Iran's 2021 presidential election, a vote that saw the lowest turnout in the Islamic Republic’s history. Raisi is sanctioned by the U.S. in part over his involvement in the mass execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 at the end of the bloody Iran-Iraq war.

Under Raisi, Iran now enriches uranium at nearly weapons-grade levels and hampers international inspections. Iran has armed Russia in its war on Ukraine, as well as launched a massive drone-and-missile attack on Israel amid its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It also has continued arming proxy groups in the Mideast, like Yemen's Houthi rebels and Lebanon's Hezbollah.

Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.

FILE- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi places his hands on his heart as a gesture of respect to the crowd during the funeral ceremony of the victims of Wednesday's bomb explosion in the city of Kerman about 510 miles (820 kms) southeast of the capital Tehran, Iran, Jan. 5, 2024. A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi suffered a “hard landing” on Sunday, May 19, 2024, Iranian state television reported, without immediately elaborating. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)