U.S. Attorneys Rest in Case of Lebanese Man Murder

The jury hearing the case of an Oklahoma man charged with first-degree murder and a hate crime in the killing of his Lebanese neighbor has been dismissed after attorneys trying the 2016 case rested.

A judge sent jurors home for the day in the Stanley Majors trial, clearing the way for closing arguments on Wednesday, when the jury is also expected to get the case.

Majors is on trial in Tulsa district court for the fatal shooting of Khalid Jabara, 37, and has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Prosecutors said Majors, 63, was motivated by hatred and jealousy and bombarded Jabara and his family for years with racial epithets before the 2016 slaying. His taunts included calling the Jabaras Muslim when they are Christian.

Defense attorneys tried to show Majors was mentally ill at the time of the shooting. His lawyers on Monday brought a psychiatrist who testified that Majors was unable to fully understand or appreciate his actions when he shot Jabara.

Majors' attorneys also argued that he believed Jabara's family targeted him because he's gay.

Majors' conflict with the Jabara family also put him at odds with his late husband, Stephen Schmauss, who came to befriend Jabara and thought of him as an apprentice, teaching him how to use power tools and computer circuitry.

Schmauss told The Associated Press in a 2016 interview that his husband was "textbook bipolar" and a diabetic who refused to take any medication. Schmauss insisted that anything Majors said to the Jabara family was "done under the bipolar situation."