Colorado shooting suspect makes 2nd court appearance
DENVER (AP) — A 22-year old man accused of fatally shooting 10 people in March at a Colorado supermarket made his second court appearance Tuesday, and a judge scheduled a September hearing to review evidence in the case.
The hearing for suspect Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa lasted about two minutes and did not include any substantive discussion about the case, including his defense team's claim the Alissa suffers from an unspecified mental illness.
At Alissa's first hearing the week of the March 22 attack in Boulder, defense attorney Kathryn Herold said the defense legal team needed two or three months to evaluate his “mental illness” and evidence collected by investigators before proceeding. She did not provide more specific details about his mental health at that time.
A law enforcement official briefed on the shooting previously said that the suspect’s family told investigators they believed Alissa was suffering from some type of mental illness, including delusions. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
It was not surprising that Alissa's mental health was not discussed at this point in the proceedings because he has not been asked to enter a plea to the charges yet, said Karen Steinhauser, a criminal defense lawyer and former Denver prosecutor. If the judge decides he should stand trial at the September hearing, Alissa's lawyers could then raise arguments about what his mental health was on the day of the attack as part of his defense, she said.
The separate issue of competency — whether or not defendants can currently understand court proceedings and help their lawyers defend them — is another issue that can be raised at any time, said Steinhauser, noting that many mentally ill people would be...