HOUSTON (AP) — Attorneys for a person accused of fatally shooting 10 other people at a Texas high school in 2018 are looking for to have the judge dealing with the case got rid of, accusing him of bias for pushing to have mavens deem the previous pupil competent to face trial.
Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 22, has been on the North Texas State Hospital in Vernon since early December 2019 after he used to be decided to be incompetent to stand trial.
Pagourtzis, then a 17-year-old pupil, has been charged with capital homicide for the assault at Santa Fe High School on May 18, 2018, when he used to be a pupil there. Eight scholars and two academics have been killed on the school, positioned about 35 miles (55 kilometers) southeast of Houston.
In February, state District Judge Jeth Jones ordered Pagourtzis be held on the clinic for as much as some other 12 months.
But final week, Jones held a last-minute listening to in which he ordered Pagourtzis to be evaluated by way of an outdoor knowledgeable to resolve his competency.
In their movement Tuesday to recuse Jones, Pagourtzis’ attorneys mentioned they imagine Jones is decided to search out mavens who will conclude their consumer is competent to face trial and that the judge indicated he may appoint a brand new knowledgeable on a weekly foundation.
In the recusal movement, lawyer Nicholas Poehl wrote that Jones expressed all through a Jan. 26 assembly that medical doctors and personnel on the state clinic “might not care to see” Pagourtzis restored to competency so that he can be tried.
In a statement, Galveston County District Attorney Jack Roady, whose office is prosecuting Pagourtzis, said he opposes the motion to remove the judge.
Jones’ office did not return a call or email seeking comment Wednesday. The judge told the Houston Chronicle he could not comment on the motion and had referred it to Susan Brown, the presiding judge over the six-county region that includes Galveston County. Brown could handle the motion herself or appoint another judge to hear it. No court hearings have been scheduled on the motion.
Jones took over the case after being elected in November.
The motion alleges that after ordering Pagourtzis be hospitalized for another year, the judge secretly asked the state hospital to perform another competency evaluation, which found that Pagourtzis remained incompetent.
Jones then held a hearing last week in which he ordered an evaluation from an outside expert.
The judge’s recent actions come as family members of those killed or wounded have expressed frustration the case has not gone to trial. They also say they have not been given access to evidence in the case, including autopsy reports and surveillance footage, that could provide more information on their loved ones’ final moments. A bill has been filed in the current session of the state Legislature that would give crime victims’ families access to such evidence without making it public.
“Judge Jones’ proposed scheme appears to be designed to either create the appearance to the public as if the Court is doing something or to eventually arrive at the specific result of … (Pagourtzis) being found competent,” Poehl wrote. ___ Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter at https://twitter.com/juanlozano70.
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