Family and friends of slain University of Arizona professor Thomas Meixner broke into quiet sobs Tuesday as the first of several guilty verdicts were handed down against an expelled graduate student who gunned him down during an attack on campus in 2022.
Murad Dervish, 48, had just been found guilty in Pima County Superior Court on six felony counts — premeditated first degree murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, first degree burglary and three counts of endangerment.
The defense, led by Leo Masursky and Derek Miller, had been fighting for a guilty except insane verdict throughout the trial that started May 7 and ended Monday afternoon.
The verdict came about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, just over two hours after jurors began their deliberations.
Dervish had been expelled and banned from campus months before the shooting. He’d made numerous threats against UA staff, including Meixner, a well-known expert on desert water issues who was the head of the UA’s Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences.
On the day of the shooting — Oct. 5, 2022 — Dervish carried a Ruger 9mm handgun as he lingered waiting for class to be over. He then tracked down and confronted Meixner, firing 11 shots as he chased the professor down a hallway, prosecutors said at trial.
As was the norm throughout the trial, Dervish sat between his two attorneys and showed no emotion as the verdicts were being read.
Kathleen Meixner, dressed in a Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences T-shirt in honor of her late husband, was enveloped in hugs and embraces as soon as the hearing ended.
Outside of Courtroom 683, friends and loved ones from the UA community gathered with Meixner and her two sons, Sean and Brendan.
There were hugs, tears and words of support shared.
“They’re very relieved. They’ve just been to hell and back,” Deputy County Attorney Mark Hotchkiss told reporters, speaking on behalf of the family. “I’m not sure if they’re back yet, but they deserved what happened today. They deserve to have some small sense of justice delivered by these 12 jurors.”
Hotchkiss said Dervish is facing the rest of his life behind bars.
“Given the charges that the defendant has been found guilty of, he’s facing a natural life sentence, so he’ll be spending the rest of his life in prison,” Hotchkiss told reporters after Dervish was convicted. “For reasons I won’t discuss, I think this is a case where he belongs in state prison for the rest of his life.”
“Our community was shaken by the tragic pre-meditated murder of Professor Thomas Meixner, after Dervish entered the University of Arizona campus and committed the horrific crime,” the Pima County Attorney’s Office said in a news release after the verdict. “The impact of this case has left a lingering effect on the U of A campus community, the Tucson community, and those who were there when the crime occurred.”
Dervish’s sentencing is set for 1:30 p.m. on June 24.
