Defendant’s brother jailed for contempt

State District Judge Wayne Salvant held a brother of defendant Omar Bashir Mohammed in contempt of court on Thursday and sent him to jail for taking pictures of jurors.

On Wednesday, a juror told a bailiff that she believed a man was taking pictures of the jury on his cellphone. The bailiff told Salvant on Thursday.

Salvant told Anas Mohammed to approach the bench. Mohammed initially denied having photos of jurors on his phone. When officials found them on his phone, he said he did not realize they were there.

Anas Mohammed tried to prevent the judge and bailiffs from searching the phone by saying that their Muslim faith prohibits strangers from viewing pictures of his mother’s and sister’s uncovered hair, which were on the phone.

Salvant said he planned to release Anas Mohammed on Friday but would have the phone searched more thoroughly to make sure that none of the pictures of the jury were transmitted to another device or placed in storage.

“I’ll let him out tomorrow, but I want to hold onto that phone,” Salvant said.

Thursday night, jurors convicted Omar Bashir Mohammed of all charges.

Mitch Mitchell, 817-390-7752

This story was originally published March 19, 2015 at 8:18 PM with the headline "Defendant’s brother jailed for contempt."