Franklin Lakes, NJ - Man Guilty Of '04 Beating Death

Franklin Lakes, NJ - After deliberating for less than two hours, a Common Pleas Court jury found Nader Ali guilty but mentally ill in the public beating death of medical student Lea Sullivan on South Street in 2004.

Ali, 28, showed no emotion as the jury foreman announced the verdict at the Criminal Justice Center. He faces life in prison for first-degree murder. But first, he will get a hearing in September to determine what psychiatric treatment he might need.

Ali's mental state contributed to the brutal afternoon attack outside the Whole Foods Market at Ninth and South Streets on Nov. 7, 2004. Ali, wearing a ski mask, approached Sullivan, 25, a third-year student at Jefferson Medical College, from behind and hit her repeatedly with a Louisville Slugger baseball bat. She died the next day.

A forensic psychiatrist testified that Ali believed that the Ar"i HaKadosh, a 16th-century Kabbalistic sage, had possessed Sullivan and forced him to do battle. Ali was a student of Kabbalah, an aspect of Jewish mysticism.
After the attack, Ali "ripped off his mask and stared directly at me with a huge grin on his face." Ali was arrested in New Jersey the day after the attack.