Man guilty of Riverside City Hall shooting found sane

RIVERSIDE, Calif. - A man who shot up City Hall was sane when he wounded the mayor and several City Council members, according to the jury that convicted him of attempted murder.

Wednesday's verdict means that instead of being sent to a state hospital, Joseph Neale Jr. could be sentenced to multiple life terms in prison. A sentencing hearing is scheduled next month.

The same jury that rejected Neale's contention that he was insane at the time of the shootings found him guilty Nov. 13 of 12 counts of attempted murder.

The U.S. Postal Service worker was believed to be angry over losing his job as a part-time chess coach at a Riverside recreation center. He had filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the city in 1995 blaming age and race for his firing. Neale is black.

Jurors watched surveillance video of the October 1998 shooting that showed an armed Neale struggling with a council member and another council member slumped under a chair.

After Neale opened fire, calls from police outside the room drew him away from where the wounded mayor and several City Council members were trapped. Police shot and wounded the gunman through a blocked door and rescued the hostages.

Mayor Ron Loveridge, council members Chuck Beaty, Laura Pearson, Ameal Moore and Terri Thompson and three police officers were wounded. All recovered.

Neale also was convicted of attempting to murder council member Alex Clifford, City Manager John Holmes and two other police officers. Those four were not hurt.

Supervising Deputy District Attorney William Mitchell had argued that Neale acted like a terrorist and planned to kill everyone in the room to bring nationwide attention to his belief that the United States poorly educates black children. He noted that investigators found a note written by Neale at his home reading, ''When diplomacy fails, there is only one alternative: violence.''

Deputy Public Defender Lawrence Fait had sought to convince jurors that there was reasonable doubt that Neale intended to kill that day. Fait said Neale only wanted to take the city's leaders hostage so they would listen to him.