Ex-Muslim Minister Guilty

RIVERSIDE, Calif. - A defrocked Muslim preacher from Seattle charged with shooting a rival Nation of Islam minister faces a possible life prison term after being convicted of attempted murder and three counts of assault.

James Edward Bess, 51, is scheduled for sentencing April 4 before Superior Court Judge H. Dennis Myers.

He has been in custody since May 29, 1994, when police pulled him from an angry mob outside a student center at the University of California, Riverside.

Bess was convicted Thursday of trying to murder Khallid Abdul Muhammad, a rival minister.

The jury saw videotape and heard testimony that Bess was the gunman who fired into a crowd after a speech by Muhammad.

Bess was convicted of assaulting bodyguards Caliph Sadit of Upland and Terrell Daon Strait of Pomona, and of assaulting another Pomona man, Varnado Puckett, with great bodily injury.

Bess, a father of eight children, had a small Black Muslim ministry in his Seattle home for nearly 10 years. He bowed his head and showed no emotion as the verdict was read.