June 25th 2024.
The University of Arizona was rocked by a tragic incident when a former graduate student, Murad Dervish, was found guilty of fatally shooting hydrology professor Thomas Meixner on campus. The jury, after less than three hours of deliberation, convicted Dervish of first-degree murder and sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Meixner, who was the head of the Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences, was shot 11 times near his office on October 5, 2022. Dervish, who was pursuing a master's degree in atmospheric sciences, had been expelled from the university months prior due to ongoing issues with professors. It was reported that Dervish had received a bad grade and was subsequently banned from the school in January 2022.
During the trial, Dervish's attorney argued that his client was in the midst of a psychotic episode at the time of the shooting, pleading for a lesser charge of second-degree murder that would have resulted in confinement in a psychiatric hospital. However, the prosecutors presented evidence that Dervish had planned Meixner's killing and had even purchased a handgun a month prior to the shooting.
In February 2022, a flyer with Dervish's photograph was circulated to university staff with instructions to call 911 if he ever entered the John W. Harshbarger Building, where Meixner worked. Dervish was also barred from school property and had a history of harassing and threatening staff members at Harshbarger.
According to witnesses, Dervish showed up outside Meixner's office wearing a surgical mask and a baseball cap as a disguise before shooting the professor. He then fled the scene but was arrested three hours later by Arizona state troopers on a highway over 190 kilometers away from Tucson. A loaded handgun was found in Dervish's vehicle, and the ammunition matched the shell casings found at the scene of the shooting.
Kathleen Meixner, Thomas Meixner's widow, expressed her grief and loss in a statement after Dervish's sentencing. She said that while the man responsible for her husband's death would spend the rest of his life in prison, it would never bring her husband back. She also mentioned that her sons would never see their father again and that the University of Arizona had lost a valued professor, leaving a void in the community as well.
The tragic incident has left the university and the community in shock and mourning, as they remember the brilliant scientist and educator, Thomas Meixner.
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