Ruling Extends Legal Limbo For Planned Parenthood Shooter Robert Dear
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) - A judge has ruled that Robert Dear, a man who police say killed three people and injured nine others at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic, remains mentally incompetent to stand trial. The Gazette reports Monday's ruling extends the legal limbo for the 61-year-old, who is charged with 179 counts, including murder and attempted murder, in the November 2015 shooting in Colorado Springs.
Dear didn't attend the hearing because he is undergoing treatment at the state mental hospital in Pueblo.
He was initially found mentally unfit for trial in May 2016, when a judge determined he was too delusional to understand the charges against him or to assist in his defense. That judgment has been affirmed at 90-day intervals since then.
Colorado law allows Dear to be held indefinitely on suspicion of first-degree murder while undergoing treatment.
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