New evaluation ordered for mass shooting suspect
A judge’s decision to order a new mental health evaluation for the man accused of killing 10 people in the 2018 Santa Fe High School shooting was met with optimism from the victims’ families and confusion from the defense.
At a status conference Friday, Judge Jeth Jones appointed a new, independent expert, Dr. Joseph Penn, to evaluate Dimitrios Pagourtzis and hinted that he’d be open to rescinding a change of venue order, should the case ever move to trial. The decision, which comes just a month after an order to keep Pagourtzis committed for up to another year, spurred frenetic back-andforth about the reasoning behind the judge’s latest order, but it was seen as a positive move by some of the victims’ family members, who attended Friday’s hearing.
Rhonda Hart, whose daughter, Kimberly Vaughan, was among the slain, said she was cautiously optimistic about the judge’s decision.
“This seems like a positive move in the right direction,” she said. Hart attended Friday’s hearing with a service dog in tow and said she’d visited with a therapist before coming. Though a new evaluation seems like a positive development, she was going to remain grounded because the expert could come back with the same outcome, she said.
Nicholas Poehl, an attorney for Pagourtzis, argued that procedures required Jones to provide an explanation and evidence for why he believes the defendant’s status has changed to order a competency hearing so quickly. Criminal codes require at least 90 days to elapse after the ruling by Jones in February, Poehl argued. But Jones rejected Poehl’s objections, saying he made the decision to understand why North Texas State Hospital in Vernon had failed to restore Pagourtzis to competency.
“The court wants answers as to why they have not done their job in four years,” Jones said.
Pagourtzis was committed to the hospital based on mental health evaluations by three doctors.
“It’s troubling that the state acts like it can step over criminal procedure when it’s not working for them,” Poehl said after the hearing.
Galveston County District Attorney Jack Roady was muted in Friday’s conference, saying the state didn’t object to the judge’s decision.
“The victims and their families have long waited for justice, and I am encouraged by the possibility that the prosecution may move forward,” Roady said in a prepared statement.
Jones closed the conference by saying he wasn’t going to lift an order moving a potential jury trial to Fort Bend County but that it was something worth revisiting, given the space of time between the 2018 shooting and now. Poehl told the judge he would reserve comment on the matter until a later time.
But after the conference, Poehl said the judge’s comments caught him off guard.
“If you’re trying not to taint a jury pool, holding a hearing in this fashion, fully open to the media, seems like an odd decision,” he said.
Pagourtzis is facing charges of capital murder of multiple persons and aggravated assault against a public servant in connection with the mass shooting, according to court records. He has been committed to the state hospital since November 2019.
Pagourtzis was originally evaluated independently by three psychiatric experts in October 2019, with one each selected by the defense, prosecution and retired Judge John Ellisor, who was presiding over the case at the time. All three agreed that Pagourtzis was not fit to stand trial.
Ellisor in 2019 also granted a chance of venue motion, moving a potential trial to Fort Bend County. By choosing that county, Ellisor said he was balancing the defense’s concern that Pagourtzis would not receive a fair trial in Galveston County with the desire to accommodate family members and others who want to attend.