Editor's note: Denver7 has chosen to not include the defendant's name in our coverage of the trial. 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.
DENVER — Defense attorneys for the man who killed 10 people at a Boulder King Soopers in 2021 are not contesting the shooting. Instead, the defense is arguing that untreated, severe schizophrenia caused the shooter's actions that day.
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, 47 counts of attempted murder, first-degree assault, and six counts of using a large-capacity magazine in a crime, plus multiple crimes of violence.
In Colorado, for a not guilty by reason of insanity defense to be successful, attorneys must prove that the defendant did not know right from wrong and they were unable to form criminal intent due to their mental condition.
Following opening statements, Denver7 spoke to behavioral health and law enforcement experts to explain the use of an insanity defense.
Watch Denver7's previous coverage of the Boulder King Soopers shooting in the video playlist above.
"Schizophrenia is a cluster of symptoms that consist of typically delusions and hallucinations. So a delusion would be when someone loses touch with reality," explained Brad Sjostrom, director of behavioral health at AdventHealth Porter Hospital. "With schizophrenia, there's also some thought disorganization, a lack of motivation, a lack of get-up-and-go and gumption."
Sjostrom said people who have schizophrenia can be more violent than the general population; however, it is quite rare for the disorder to lead to violence.
"They're not exceedingly violent as the way movies portray it or the media portrays it," he said.
Sjostrom emphasized that having a mental illness and being deemed insane are not the same thing.
"One could be determined mentally ill but sane. They clearly have a mental illness, however, they don't meet the definition for insanity because insanity is a legal term. It's not a psychiatric term," said Sjostrom.
Former Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen responded to the shooting that day.
"I believe 68 officers from Denver self-deployed. We knew this was a big, critical incident, and that the Boulder Police Department would need some some help," he said.
To be found not guilty by reason of insanity, the defense must show that the shooter was not in a mental state to have a criminal intent. Pasen said what he heard in court tells a different story.
"Everybody's entitled to the best defense possible. But I truly believe that the prep work, the amount of time, the little amount of time once the killing spree began, really showed the intent prior to and a level of sanity to complete that horrible tragedy," said Pazen.
Watch our coverage from day one of the jury trial in the video below.
