Editor's note: This is a developing story and will be updated as new information arrives. KUNC is choosing to avoid naming the shooter in this story. Although his name has been reported widely in previous coverage, we recognize that referencing it here can add to his notoriety. However, we will name the shooter in future stories related to a final court verdict or sentencing. We'll also continue to name the victims and tell their stories.
A man who gunned down 10 people in a supermarket mass shooting was not insane when he in a Colorado college town, but a calculated killer who knew what he did was wrong, a prosecutor told jurors Thursday in an opening statement swiftly disputed by the defense attorney.
The trial began after years of legal wrangling over the shooter's mental state on the day of the March 2021 shooting in Boulder and will likely focus on whether he was legally sane.
His attorney argued that his client, who has been diagnosed with treatment-resistant schizophrenia, suffered from hallucinations 鈥� hearing screaming voices, seeing people who weren't there, and believing he was being followed 鈥� in the runup to the 2021 shooting at the King Soopers grocery store.
The man has pleaded . No one, including his lawyers, disputes he was the shooter.
鈥淲e鈥檙e not running from that. But if you鈥檙e going to point the finger at this guy, you deserve to hear the truth about him. This man ... is an ill individual,鈥� said his attorney, Samuel Dunn, in his opening statement.
A prosecutor argued the shooter was able to determine right from wrong and, therefore, sane.
鈥淭he victims were random, but the murders were absolutely deliberate and intentional,鈥� Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty told jurors.
Dressed in a striped white dress shirt, the shooter sat beside his attorneys in court, sometimes swiveling in his chair and turning to look up at a video screen where lawyers presented evidence and bullet points of their arguments.
Relatives of the victims filled rows on the opposite side of the court, dabbing their eyes at times and comforting one another during the presentations.
The shooter's motive, if he had one, has remained unclear, and Dougherty did not posit one in opening statements. He argued that the man acted with intent and full knowledge of his wrongdoing 鈥� and had not been treated for mental illness before the shooting, even though relatives told police he had been acting withdrawn and paranoid leading up to it.
Most of those shot inside and outside the store were killed in just over a minute. The shooter targeted people who tried to flee 鈥� and made a special effort to finish off those he wounded with additional shots, Dougherty pointed out.
鈥淭he shooter prepared to kill them, planned to kill them, and went and executed 10 people at King Soopers. That鈥檚 why you鈥檙e here,鈥� Dougherty told the jury after showing photos of each victim and describing why each one was at the store that day.
No one survived the shooting with gunshot wounds. After shooting eight people, the man prowled the store 鈥� quiet except for background music still playing over the store speakers 鈥� then spotted and killed Suzanne Fountain, 59, as she left a hiding spot in another aisle.
His final victim was Boulder Police Officer Eric Talley, a father of seven and one of the first three police officers who entered the store.
The shooter surrendered to other police who arrived, voluntarily stripping down to his underwear and complying with their instructions as they approached and handcuffed him.
鈥淭here鈥檚 no hallucinating, there鈥檚 no delusion, there鈥檚 no confusion,鈥� Dougherty said of the man's behavior.
The defense attorney described a range of hallucinations, delusions, and social withdrawal that relatives said his client experienced before the shooting and that psychiatrists later verified.
The schizophrenia was so severe it took years for him to engage with therapists, and only after he was given a drug, clozapine, which Dunn pointed out, is used only when other treatments don't work.
Before the shooting, the man had gone without treatment as a member of a Syrian immigrant family whose father believed possession by an evil spirit, or djinn was to blame, Dunn said.
鈥淚 want you to imagine that between your ears, where you have no shelter or reprieve, you can鈥檛 identify the source of it: You just hear yelling and screaming," Dunn said. "That鈥檚 what was being broadcast in (his) mind.鈥�
Once, the shooter's father awoke at 3 a.m., and his son, who was also awake, asked if he had seen a man in the bathroom. The father looked and nobody was there, Dunn said.
Dunn described relatives testifying that the shooter was emotionally withdrawn and spoke only when spoken to leading up to the shooting.
鈥淭he law says you can have intent and be insane. But what the law doesn鈥檛 allow is you to ignore plain, clear evidence someone鈥檚 mental illness that is severe and chronic and say that person is sane, that person is capable of telling right from wrong," Dunn said.
He told jurors to use 鈥渃ommon sense, apply the law," and find the shooter insane.
If successful, his plea of not guilty by reason of insanity could enable him to avoid prison and instead be committed indefinitely to the state mental hospital.
A mental health evaluator testified during a competency hearing in 2022 that the shooter said he bought firearms to carry out a mass shooting and suggested he wanted police to kill him.
The defense argued in a court filing that his relatives said he irrationally believed that the FBI was following him and that he would talk to himself as if he were talking to someone who was not there.
Robert Olds, whose niece, 25-year-old Rikki Olds, was the manager the man allegedly fatally shot at close range near the entrance, plans to sit in his usual spot in the front row throughout the trial.
While sometimes wishing the suspect had just been killed, he has held out hope that he would one day learn why his niece, known for her sense of humor and outgoing personality, and the others were targeted. He has become less hopeful of that but is certain the shooter knew what he was doing.
"I hope he goes to prison for the rest of his life, and then he'll serve the real penalty when he has to meet God and answer for killing 10 people," he said.
Olds said he is bracing himself to learn more horrific details about the shooting, including surveillance video not previously shown in public.
But he said finally having the trial behind him will help him and many of the families to finally grieve what they've lost, he said.
"There's no such thing as moving on. It's finding other ways to live without your loved one," he said.