Investigators searching the car of South Carolina church shooting suspect Dylann Roof last year found handwritten lists of mostly black parishes around the state, including the one attacked, jurors at his death penalty trial heard.
Roof, an avowed white supremacist, has confessed he targeted the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston because he knew black people would be gathered there. Nine people died in the June 2015 shooting at a Bible study meeting.
The significance of the other churches to Roof, 22, was not explained at the federal trial in Charleston.
State crime scene investigator Brittany Burke testified that the lists included other African Methodist Episcopal churches, a predominantly black Baptist church and a black Roman Catholic church in Charleston.
Roof noted the addresses, phone numbers and hours for churches elsewhere in the state as well, Burke said.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
Jurors also heard excepts from Roof's online manifesto, where he criticised minorities and Jews.
Roof's lawyers have not disputed his guilt but hope to spare him from being executed on charges of hate crimes resulting in death, obstruction of religion and firearms violations.
Roof also faces a death sentence if found guilty of murder charges in state court. That trial is slated for next year.
