Aug 7, 2012 No Comments ›› Pat Dollard
Breaking: Fox News is reporting live on Shepard Smith’s show that the judge has decided that Jared Loughner is competent to participate in the trial, and has accepted Loughner’s change of plea to all charges from “not guilty” to “guilty”, pretty much ending this chapter of the mess…developing…
TUCSON — A federal judge has found Tucson shooting suspect Jared Loughner competent to stand trial, paving the way for him to enter a reported guilty plea that would spare him the death penalty.
The 11 a.m. hearing began with testimony from Dr. Christina Pietz, Loughner’s forensic psychologist, who testified that she believed Loughner was competent to stand trial after spending months in a prison psychiatric hospital in Missouri.
Loughner, dressed in a khaki uniform, sat quietly in the U.S. District Court courtroom as Pietz described her review of 2,000 pages of Loughner’s journal, computer entries and other material. From that, she concluded that he has shown signs of depression since 2006 and may have developed symptoms of schizophrenia in his junior year of high school.
Between 2008-2010, Loughner’s parents and friends became concerned that he would commit suicide because of his depression, and started a suicide watch. In one video he filmed of himself, he said he was so depressed he wanted to assassinate someone.
Excerpted from The Hill: ared Lee Loughner pleaded guilty Tuesday to a shooting rampage in early January 2011 that resulted in six dead and 13 wounded, including then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).
After U.S. District Court Judge Larry A. Burns ruled that Loughner was competent enough to stand trial following a psychiatrist’s evaluation, Loughner pleaded guilty on 19 charges, including attempting to assassinate Giffords during the shooting on Jan. 8. He also admitted that he had planned the shooting, outside a Tucson supermarket, in order to kill Giffords.
Burns accepted all of the guilty pleas, and Loughner agreed to pay — as best he could — $19 million in restitution.
The plea deal to which Loughner agreed, brokered between the prosecution and Loughner’s defense attorneys, meant that the 23-year-old would spend life in prison for confessing to the shooting. Per the plea agreement, Loughner will not face the death penalty, and cannot plead insanity. Loughner has been diagnosed as schizophrenic.
