COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Accused Planned Parenthood shooter Robert Lewis Dear Jr. informed the court Wednesday that he wants to represent himself.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Accused Planned Parenthood shooter Robert Lewis Dear Jr. informed the court Wednesday that he wants to represent himself.
“I do not want them as my lawyers,” Dear said, interrupting his public defender.
The judge did not rule on Dear’s request, but instead ordered a mental health evaluation — one that could take months to complete due to a backlog at a state hospital in Pueblo. Prosecutors objected to the evaluation, saying Dear looked competent at this hearing and other hearings.
Dear will be sent to the Colorado State Mental Health Institute in Pueblo for the evaluation, but Dear repeatedly vowed not to cooperate with psychologists.
“I’m not going to say one word to them,” he said, adding that he wouldn’t take medication to “look like a zombie.”
“Do I sound like a zombie?” he asked. “Do I sound like I have no intelligence?”
At a Dec. 9 hearing, Dear’s public defender, Dan King, questioned Dear’s mental health and whether he was competent to stand trial. On Wednesday, Dear said King’s questions of his competency prompted him to request a new lawyer.
“Well, how can I trust my attorney if he says in the newspaper that I’m incompetent?” Dear asked the court.
King, a death penalty expert, recently represented James Holmes in the Aurora theater shooting trial.
During the Dec. 9 hearing, Dear shouted “I’m guilty — there’s no trial,” and declared himself “a warrior for the babies.” The outbursts came as prosecutors charged Dear with 179 counts in connection with the Nov. 27 attack at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic.
Dear was less disruptive in court on Wednesday, but interrupted proceedings several times. Referring to his treatment at jail, Dear said, “They’re poisoning me,” before Martinez ordered him to stop talking.
Ke’Arre Stewart, Jennifer Markovsky and University of Colorado at Colorado Springs police Officer Garrett Swasey died in the attack at the city’s lone Planned Parenthood clinic. Nine others were wounded.
When an evaluation will be done is unclear. A backlog in Pueblo is six to nine months for this type of evaluation, a prosecutor said. If held at jail, such an evaluation would take an estimated 90 days, he said.
Fourth Judicial District Attorney Dan May said in a news conference after the hearing that the judge must rule on the competency issue before anything else is done.
“That’s got to be decided by the judge before we move on to any other proceedings,” May said. May also said that he’s far from declaring any intention to seek the death penalty. He has 63 days from when Dear enters his plea to do so.
Dear is scheduled to be back in court Feb. 24 for a status hearing.
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