Editor's note: Denver7 has chosen to not include the defendant's name in our coverage of the trial to respect victims and their loved ones, and to not glorify the defendant. This trial aims to determine if the defendant was insane or not at the time of the shooting — not if he shot and killed people at the King Soopers, which the defense is not contesting. Therefore, we have removed words such as "alleged" and "suspected" from our trial coverage when referring to him.
BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. — The jury trial is underway to determine if a defendant accused of shooting and killing 10 people at a King Soopers store in Boulder on March 22, 2021 was insane at the time of the shooting.
The defendant was arrested the same day as the mass shooting, but the case was stalled by several competency hearings. He was found competent to stand trial in August 2023 and pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity three months later. He faces a slew of charges, including 10 counts of first-degree murder, 38 counts of attempted murder, first-degree assault, and six counts of using a large-capacity magazine in a crime, plus multiple crimes of violence.
The 10 people who lost their lives that day were Suzanne Fountain, Rikki Olds, Boulder Police Officer Eric Talley, Jody Waters, Denny Stong, Tralona Bartkowiak, Neven Stanisic, Kevin Mahoney, Lynn Murray and Teri Leiker. Read more about them here.
Opening statements began on the morning of Sept. 5. Denver7 will follow each day of this trial. Read the latest below.
Denver7's Coverage of the Boulder King Soopers Shooting
Thursday, Sept. 12
The trial against the defendant in the King Soopers shooting continued Thursday with FBI special agent Stephanie Benitez, who's been with the bureau for 22 years. In her tenure, Benitez has responded to over a dozen mass casualties, including the Aurora Theater shooting, the Las Vegas shooting, and more recently, the shooting in Uvalde, Texas. She also responded to the King Soopers shooting in Boulder on March 22, 2021.
Her role as a special agent is to collect evidence at crime scenes, she told the courtroom Thursday.
During the King Soopers shooting, Benitez was deployed to search the defendant's home to collect evidence and was also asked to help get a list of victims so their families could be notified. One of the ways in which victims could be identified was by tallying the number of people who wanted their cars back from the scene, she said.
In all, Benitez said the FBI returned 78 vehicles to people that day. Another 51 who were inside the store at the time of the shooting and fled were interviewed.
Benitez told the court she, along with 30 other law enforcement officials, was asked to respond to the defendant's home after a search warrant was authorized. The warrant allowed the FBI to look for eight specific things inside the home: Body armor, proof of residency, any type of explosives, diaries, journals, pictures, forensics and weapons.
The witness told the court the search of the defendant's home began at around midnight and didn't end until about 4:28 a.m. the morning of March 23. In all, she said she took about 550 pictures inside the defendant's home.
Some of those photos were presented in court Thursday, including a picture of the defendant's bedroom, where photos showed a walk-in closet with at least two weapons in plain view — one an AR-style weapon laying on a white shelf and an SAR-style weapon along with two magazines.
Another photo showed the end of a semi-automatic rifle, along with two gun cases and a box that Benitez said she believed contained more ammo. A different photo presented in court Thursday the AR-style rifle with six magazines in the defendant's closet, all loaded with 556 ammo. Benitez said there were a total of 80 rounds.
The court was then presented with a white cardboard box that contained a handgun (SAR) and three magazines as well as a case. The box is one of the ones FBI agents recovered during the night they searched the shooter's home.
The court was also presented with a box that contained a Ruger AR rifle that contained not just the Ruger, but six magazines, one shorter and the rest longer. Inside the box, handgun ammo was also recovered with 23 cartridges and an unfired unit of ammo. Those 23 cartridges were for a 44 caliber firearm, Benitez said.
Next, the courtroom was shown more photos during the search of the shooter's home, including photos of different safes that were found around the home. In one, the FBI found two different types of ammo as well as cash and a ring box.
The ammo found was 357 ammo and two 45 ammo boxes, Benitez said.
During the presentation, the defense objected to the testimony pointing out that that room was not associated with the shooter and that there were passports in the safe not connected to the defendant. The defense argued this was the shooter's family home, where multiple people lived, including parents, grandmother, brother, sisters, some in-laws, and parents.
The defense then objected to the evidence being entered, but DA Dougherty responds that some of this ammo found in the home is compatible with the firearms the shooter had the day of the shooting.
Other photos from inside the shooter's room showed items court had already seen just a few moments ago: An AR rifle, the SAR case, another empty gun box (blue in color), another box for a rifle that was empty, gun accessories (scope, ammo, scope holder and mount), and ammo. One other photo identified a gun as a model AR 556 – pistol type (the same gun used at the store), Benitez said.
During her testimony, Benitez was also presented with some of the other evidence she and her team collected at the home, including an empty blue gun box that contained a Girsan case, like the gun found at the scene, she said.
Another piece of evidence presented Thursday was shipping labels for guns found in the shooter's closet, including a packaging slip that had the shooter's home address, with a date of sale marked as "Jan. 3, 2021."
Benitez also testified that during their search of the home, the FBI also found two types of chemicals that are precursors to explosives – a large bottle of hydrochloric acid and five bottles of acetone.
There was no cross examination of the witness and Benitez was excused from the stand.
Court then went to morning recess.
Court came back from recess by calling on Jennifer Jacobsen, who was at the King Soopers on Table Mesa the day of the mass shooting.
Jacobsen testified she was inside the store "maybe 10 minutes" as she was just to shop for one item to make dinner that night. She said that as she was exiting the store, she was just behind 61-year-old Kevin Mahoney, one of the victims of the shooting that day.
She recalled how Mahoney felt someone was following behind the store and both realized they were heading the same way as they had their cars parked next to each other. She said that Mahoney kept turning around as if wondering why the woman was following him right behind.
Jacobsen said that as both opened their trunks and started unloading groceries, "I smiled at him, he smiled at me, and we both chuckled."
As Mahoney returned to the store to return her and she got in her vehicle, Jacobsen recalled hearing a pop "almost immediately, but didn't think anything of it. She then recalled hearing "pop pop" — sounds that were so close they almost sounded "like a firework coming out of a cannon," she said.
Jacobsen then told the court she turned her head over her left shoulder and saw the gunman — he had a "huge gun, a very large gun" — and he had it up and was standing with the gun pointed into a truck that was parked one row behind her.
She said the gunman was shooting into the windshield of the truck, shooting once or twice into the windshield, before walking over to the driver's side and shooting again once or twice. The vehicle she was described was the work van that Neven Stanisic was driving that day. He was the first to die in the shooting that day.
When the shooter turned, Jacobsen recalled, he had the gun up and ready, and "all I could think of is, 'he's shooting that man that was next to me.' She remembered thinking he was going to shoot Mahoney as he looked "very determined... and just went walking straight to where I assumed [Mahoney] was returning his cart."
She remembered thinking the shooter was going to come after her so she put her head down and "thought about my daughter."
"My body just kept shaking… I just kept thinking about my daughter, and I just thought, 'I hope he doesn’t shoot me in the back of my head.'"
Jacobsen testified that she remembered hearing additional shots — about four or five — "and then it was quiet for a second" before she raised her head high enough for her eyes to have a view about the dashboard "and he was one car length in front of my car."
The woman said she and the shooter made "split second" eye contact as he had the gun up, but not pointed at her, as it was pointed toward the store.
"He just had this determined look on his face. He looked like he knew what he was doing, and like he was there to kill people," she said, before the defense objected to her testimony. The judge sustained that objection.
Jacobsen then recalled how the shooter saw Tralona Bartkowiak walking down the ramp before he shot at her "point blank."
She recalled the shooter's determination seemed like that of "a robot — expressionless, focused... no emotion on his face."
She said the shooter then went right in the automatic doors of the store and that's when Jacobsen drove off a long way to avoid driving near the windows of the store as she thought the shooter could shoot out the windows.
As she was exiting the parking lot, she recalled seeing a police officer patrol car jump the curb. As she drove back to her partner's home, which she said was about two minutes away, she recalled getting out of her car, running into his home and screaming. She said her partner couldn't understand what was going on, but then she heard sirens and she screamed, "Give me a piece of paper and a pencil — I want to write all this down, what I just saw."
She said she drew a map and as many details as she could remember immediately. On the back of the paper, she wrote down the time, and tried to write exactly what she saw.
The court was then shown the piece of paper which Jacobsen used to describe what she saw and what path the shooter took before entering the store. On the back of the paper, she wrote a description of the shooter — "stocky, blue jeans on, huge rifle, it was loud, bullet proof vest, brown short curly hair."
During questioning from prosecutors, Jacobsen would say she thought it felt to her like the shooter "was very focused in what he was doing... almost like a hunter."
The defense objected to that part of her testimony and she was excused from the stand as there was no cross examination.
The next witness to be called to the stand was Maggie Montoya, a recent graduate and a professional runner. At the time of the shooting, she was working in the pharmacy of the King Soopers on Table Mesa as a technician.
She testified she didn't know there was a shooting until the store manager yelled "active shooter!" She recalled hearing a lot of banging and "rapid, multiple loud noises."
Montoya said she turned and ran for the counseling room, which is the area of the pharmacy where people walk in to enter the pharmacy. Inside, she and another woman tried to call 911 but gave up and started calling their parents. As they did so, the sounds from the commotion outside made everything "really loud for a long time" and she could hear people "scrambling."
Montoya recalled that it got quiet at one point and that customers were trying to call the pharmacy, but Montoya hung up on those calls, worried it would bring attention to the pharmacy. In all, she said there were five people in the pharmacy and another person upstairs.
Later, Montoya testified that she heard announcements on the loud speaker, and heard that the building was surrounded and that police were calling for the shooter to surrender.
She recalled hearing the shooter saying they were surrendering and that they were naked. She also recalled officers canvassing the area and hearing that they had found weapons on aisle 21, which was near the pharmacy.
In cross examination, defense attorney Kathryn Herold said it was hard to understand where Montoya was and asked to have a rendering the overhead view of the King Soopers. Herold told the court that the counseling room could only accessed by pharmacists. It was not clear from court if technicians — such as Montoya — could have the same access as pharmacists.
In the re-redirect, prosecutors pointed toward aisle 21, telling the court the aisle was near the pharmacy.
Montoya was then excused from the stand.
The next witness to be called Thursday was Sarah Chen, a pharmacist for King Soopers who was working at the Table Mesa location on the day of the shooting.
She recalled talking to the store manager about time off when technicians came over and told her there was an active shooter at the store. Initially, Chen recalled ducking in the counter right up front, by the registers, but would later move just behind the counter.
Chen remembered hearing "small breaks" between the shooting and also heard metal clanging, but wasn't sure what the noise could have been.
At some point, she said, she heard yelling. At first, she couldn't understand but then listened closely and said she heard the shooter screaming, "This is fun! This is fun! This is such fun!"
Chen testified that after hearing more shots, the atmosphere became very quiet and she waited for a time. She remembered hearing phones ring consistently before officers came around the pharmacy with dogs, which she never saw.
"Next thing I heard was, 'I surrender! I’m naked, I surrender! Don’t shoot… I’m unarmed, don’t shoot!'" Chen said, adding she remembered getting patted down by officers as they were released from the scene.
No cross examination was performed by the defense and Chen was excused from the stand as court went into lunch recess.
Watch Denver7's previous coverage of the Boulder King Soopers shooting in the video playlist above.
After lunch, court resumed with testimony from Stephanie Sears, who works for the United States Postal Inspection Service — the federal law enforcement arm of the USPS. In her role, Sears is tasked with preserving, extracting and analyzing digital evidence — primarily phones and computers.
As an expert in her field, she told the court she's worked on close to 1,000 phones and a couple hundred computers.
On the day of the shooting, she was working in the lab at the Boulder Police Department when she heard the call of an active shooter at the King Soopers in Table Mesa. In the call, she heard of potentially three suspects, several civilians down as well an officer down — Office Eric Talley, whom she knew personally.
At the scene, Spears spoke with the manager of the store who provided surveillance video from inside King Soopers. The video showed a view between cash registers 14 and 15, and prosecutors played a part of the video showing the shooter killing Denny Stong.
After returning from the scene of the shooting that day, Spears testified that she went back to police headquarters and found a phone connected to the shooter. After a search warrant was obtained to search the suspect's belongings, about 25 devices were seized, she said.
In Feb. of this year, Sears said she had completed a full extraction of information from the shooter's phone, which included the owner information as well as the owner's name and iCloud account.
Sears said the account information included a picture of what appeared to be a young boy — the shooter — but that it's "wildly different" from what he looked like on the day of the shooting "no beard [and] he looks happy."
She testified to the court that based on digital forensic analysis, it appears that the shooter started using the phone (a secondhand phone likely, or if it was new, the shooter had done a reset or wipe of the device) in August 2019.
When analyzing a phone, Sears said she identifies patterns. On the shooter's phone, Sears told the court that the number of images on the phone that appeared to be related to this shooting "was extremely overwhelming." She said she found approximately 6,000 items related to mass shootings at King Soopers.
Among the items tagged in the phone were firearms, rifles, tactical vest, camouflage, firearm accessories, ear protection, among others. Spears presented some of those images to the court Thursday.
As part of the analysis of the shooter's mobile device, Sears said it appeared that the defendant had researched other mass shootings prior to March 22, 2021, including the El Paso, Texas, mass shooting that happened inside a Walmart, and the Christchurch shooting in New Zealand in 2019, which took place inside a mosque and an Islamic center. Another shooting the defendant had searched included the Muskogee shooting in Oklahoma in February 2021.
As part of her analysis, Spears also found that the shooter had searched a YouTube video explaining how to modify a rifle with a rubber band or shoelace to change the trigger pull, which happened sometime between January and March 2021.
Another search done by the shooter included the question, "Can a semiautomatic gun be made fully automatic with a shoelace?" Spears said, before court went into an afternoon recess.
In two other searches, the shooter asked the internet, "Are 30 rounds legal in Colorado" and "Are hollow point bullets more deadly," Spears said, adding searches from the shooter's phone also included phrases related to chemicals and item Spears knows to be associated with bomb-making materials. She said the court the shooter was trying to figure out how to make and use explosives.
Sears also testified that the shooter searched for the phrase "white ranch park shooting" — an open space area near the shooter's home. The DA questioning Spears, Michael Dougherty, wanted to show jurors that the defendant went to do some target practice in the area, but the defense raised an objection, calling the move by the DA speculation.
The witness then testified that the shooter kept a note in his phone where he documented things like "hand-to-hand combat," how to control, manipulate, load/unload an AR-style weapon, how to shoot while moving, as well as other things related to firearms and tactics.
During questioning, Sears also relayed how the shooter was trying to search for specific addresses in Boulder, with searches including Press Play, Bitter Bar, a Target on Pearl St., a Whole Foods off Pearl St., a Safeway off Arapahoe, Platos Closet, and a Petco store on Arapahoe.
On the morning of March 22, 2021, Sears said, the shooter was looking at locations in the city of Boulder.
During cross examination, defense attorney Kathryn Herold tried to make the case that the search history on the shooter's phone could not properly answer the question as to why the shooting happened in the first place, which the defense said was ultimately due to an episode of schizophrenia.
This is a developing story and we are updating it throughout the day Thursday. Refresh for updates.
