Robert Louis Dear, who entered a Planned Parenthood with a loaded firearm and shot and killed three people and wounded nine others, was judged incompetent to stand trial for his crimes today.
The Washington Post reports that:
“The decision from Judge Gilbert Martinez of Colorado’s Fourth Judicial District will send Robert Lewis Dear Jr. to the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo for treatment and effectively puts the criminal case against him on hold. Dear faces 179 counts stemming from the shooting, including eight counts of first-degree murder as well as numerous charges of attempted first-degree murder and assault.”
Dear admitted his guilt immediately after his arrest, saying that he wanted “no more baby parts” and again in court, calling himself “a warrior for the babies.”
Judge Martinez used statements from Dear as well as a psychiatric evaluation to reach his conclusion.
“In his order Wednesday, Martinez quoted from a evaluation that found Dear ‘currently incompetent to proceed’ because he has ‘a mental disability or developmental disability’ keeping him from being able to rationally understand the trial and consult with his attorneys. The judge also cited police testimony about a range of delusional beliefs Dear had espoused, including his contention that the FBI has been following him, his suspicion that relatives were spying on him and his assertions that President Obama funds the Islamic State and plans to declare martial law.”
The Denver Post stated that Dear expressed his disapproval of the decision as he left the courtroom.
“‘That’s called prejudiced! Prejudiced! Filthy animal!'”
Dear’s victims who lose their lives included 42-year-old Garrett Swasey, a campus police officer; 29-year-old Ke’Arre Marcell Stewart. an Iraq war veteran; and 35-year-old Jennifer Markovsky, mother of two.
For news coverage of Robert Lewis Dear’s time in court, see the video below:
Featured image screengrab via YouTube
