Nov. 16 (UPI) — A Texas judge ruled that a teen accused of opening fire and killing 10 people at Santa Fe High School is incompetent to stand trial, ordering him to undergo a third psychiatric evaluation.
Dimitrios Pagourtzis faces 10 counts of capital murder for the May 2018 shooting that left eight students and two teachers dead about 35 miles southeast of Houston.
Texas District Court Judge John Ellisor on Friday ordered the 19-year-old to be confined at a Texas Department of State Health Services facility for up to four months. He also ordered a third psychiatric examination for the teen.
Pagourtzis’ lawyer, Nick Poehl, told the court in August that his client’s mental health had deteriorated in the months since the shooting and that he didn’t understand the legal proceedings.
In February, Ellis ordered the trial, which was scheduled to begin in February, to be moved from Galveston County to Fort Bend County because Pagourtzis was unlikely to receive a fair trial in the county where the shooting happened and because of high publicity.
