San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Shooting suspect ruled mentally unfit for trial
DENVER — A judge ruled that a man charged with killing 10 people at a Colorado supermarket this year is mentally incompetent to stand trial and ordered him to be treated at the state mental hospital to see if he can be made well enough to face prosecution.
Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 22, is accused of opening fire at a busy King Soopers in the college town of Boulder in March, killing a police officer, shoppers and several store employees.
Four doctors have now determined that Alissa is not mentally competent to participate in court proceedings, and he has “deteriorated” over the past couple of months while in jail, District
Attorney Michael Dougherty said. Given the consensus, Dougherty requested that Judge Ingrid Bakke send Alissa to the state mental hospital in hopes that medication and treatment will enable him to become competent under the law — able to understand legal proceedings and work with his lawyers to defend himself.
Alissa’s attorney, Kathryn Herold, said her client has a “serious” mental illness but did not provide details. She also agreed he should be sent to the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo.
Friday’s ruling halts virtually all proceedings in the case indefinitely. Alissa is not scheduled to be back in court again until March 15, nearly a year after the shooting, to discuss whether any progress has been made. Prosecutors will get monthly updates from the hospital on his condition.
“I’m 100% confident that the day will come that he’s held fully responsible for what he did on March 22,” Dougherty said after the hearing.
An earlier court-ordered evaluation completed Oct. 1 found Alissa was not mentally competent, but prosecutors asked for a second evaluation to be conducted with an expert of their choosing, the latest to find him incompetent. An earlier evaluation by a defense expert also found him to be incompetent, Dougherty said.