Via Mercurynews.com: A jury on Tuesday quickly convicted a man of first-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of 18-year-old #NiaWilson on a #BARTstation platform in Oakland and the attempted murder of her sister. After deliberating just a few hours, the jury of eight women and four men returned its verdicts right after 4:30 p.m. against #JohnLeeCowell , 29. Family and friends of Nia Wilson’s family erupted in sobs as the verdicts were read. Tayisha Wilson, who was with sisters Nia and Letifah Wilson when they were stabbed almost two years ago, put her head down and began to weep. Letifah Wilson left the courtroom in tears, as did their mother Alicia Greyson. “We halfway there. They seen exactly what we saw,” Greyson later said outside the courthouse Tuesday. “It’s happy tears. It’s a relief that they seen what we seen,” Tayisha Wilson added. A crowd of Wilson family members and friends joyously chanted “Nia, Nia” outside the Rene C. Davidson courthouse and praised prosecutor Butch Ford for keeping the family informed and for his work. Cowell showed no reaction when the verdicts were read and his attorney declined to comment outside the courtroom. Nia Wilson was killed the night of July 22, 2018 around 9:35 p.m. at the MacArthur BART station; her older sister Letifah Wilson was stabbed and wounded but survived the attack. The jury also convicted Cowell of the special circumstances of lying in wait, which makes him eligible for life in prison without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors had argued that he watched and waited for the sisters, following them onto a train from Concord to Oakland, and moved the knife from his backpack to his pants pocket during that ride. Then when they got off at MacArthur, he followed them out, getting the knife from his pants, hiding it under his shirt, and attacking them from behind, “when they were most vulnerable.” Because Cowell had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, a sanity phase will begin Wednesday where the same jury will determine whether he was insane at the time of the crime. https://www.instagram.com/p/B9nMFTqlUbC/?igshid=nyl596oxofh7
