KALAMAZOO (WKZO-AM) — Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Getting has announced that suspected mass murderer Jason Dalton will be claiming he was insane when he committed the shootings that left six dead and two wounded on Feb. 20.
Defense Attorney Eusebio Solis made their intention known during a pre-trial hearing behind closed doors this afternoon. Kalamazoo Circuit Judge Alexander Lipsey has been assigned the case.
The decision to go with an insanity defense means Dalton will soon be headed back to the State Center on Forensic Psychiatry in Saline for a second evaluation.
The doctors will be trying to determine if Dalton could tell right from wrong on the night of the shootings.
Dalton has claimed during interviews with detectives that he was taken over by his Uber app, and that he barely remembers the shootings. He claimed it was a demonic evil with a horned cow head that vaguely resembled the Uber logo.
A report from the doctors is due back in 60 days. That could mean a decision on a trial date won’t come until later this summer or perhaps mid-fall if the defense or the prosecution wants to seek a second opinion.
Getting says he is not surprised by the decision by the defense to claim Dalton was insane, and neither probably is anyone else given Dalton’s bizarre and disruptive behavior during his preliminary hearing.
Whether that behavior is truly the result of an unbalanced mind has not yet been determined.
Dalton has no prior history of psychiatric problems.
Getting says he has every intention of seating a jury in Kalamazoo and going to trial at some point this year.
