COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado, Nov. 30, 2015 (Gephardt Daily) ─ Robert Lewis Dear, who police say was the gunman in Friday’s fatal attack on the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic, was charged with first degree murder during a court appearance Monday.
Dear and his newly-appointed attorney appeared in court via video feed. This was Dear’s first appearance in court. The time set for his next date, for formal charges, is 1:30 p.m. Dec. 9.
The judge told Dear, 57, the minimum sentence is life in prison, and the maximum is death. No bond was set.
Dear is accused in the shooting death of three people and the non-fatal shooting of nine others. Among the dead is Garrett Swasey, a University of Colorado-Colorado Springs police officer who rushed to the clinic to offer is assistance. Swasey was also a former figure skater who trained with Nancy Kerrigan.
The other two victims, identified over the weekend, include Ke’Arre Stewart, an Iraq War Army veteran and father of two, who was at the clinic with his pregnant girlfriend.
Also killed was Jennifer Markovsky, a mother of two who was at the clinic with a friend.
Dear, a North Carolina native, lived 65 miles from the clinic on land he bought in 2014, in a shelter without water or electricity, according to reports. No motive in the case has been established.
