Accused STEM School Highlands Ranch shooter Devon Erickson had become such a chronic drug user in the months before the shooting — ingesting cocaine, marijuana and cough syrup nearly daily — that he likely “couldn’t think, concentrate or understand” events around him that day, a toxicologist testified in his murder trial Friday.
Appearing malnourished and more than 50 pounds underweight as a result, Erickson also suffered from long-term sleep deprivation and insomnia that probably impacted his behavior, toxicologist Wanda Guidry testified.
“I believe it created psychiatric symptoms… disruption in mood, behavior and thinking,” Guidry said of the drugs found in Erickson’s system hours after the shooting. “He had a very difficult time figuring out or thinking of what he needed to do, what was right or what he wanted to do.”
Guidry was the second of only two witnesses Erickson’s defense team has called as it is expected to close its case Friday, leaving jurors to decide his fate on 48 charges connected to the May 7, 2019, incident that left one student dead and eight others injured.
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