A doctor who evaluated the man accused of killing 10 people at a King Soopers took the stand Friday and said he believed the defendant was sane at the time of the shooting.

Defendant Ahmad Alissa pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to 10 counts of first-degree murder, 38 counts of attempted first-degree murder, one count of first-degree assault, six counts of felony possession of a prohibited large capacity magazine, and 38 crime-of-violence sentence enhancers in connection with the shooting.

As the week — and the prosecution’s case — starts to come to a close in the King Soopers mass shooting trial, the jury heard from a doctor Friday who conducted the defendant’s sanity evaluations.

Chief Judge Ingrid Bakke denied a motion that mentions of competency in the sanity evaluations should be shown to the jury. A redacted version of the interviews will be shown to the jury.

The prosecution is expected to call one more witness to the stand Monday before they rest their case. The defense is expected to call Alissa’s family members next week, defense attorney Kathryn Herold said in court.

Dr. Thomas Gray, who conducted Alissa’s sanity evaluations, testified Friday that Alissa has schizophrenia that was presented through “some auditory hallucinations and a moderate degree of suspiciousness of situations that could as well be delusional paranoia.”

“It’s not that hard to mimic symptoms of mental illness but to keep it up day in and day out is almost impossible,” Gray said. “With Mr. Alissa, it was very consistent.”

Along with reviewing all discovery in the case, Gray also interviewed Alissa’s family members who said Alissa became more isolative in high school and then after graduating showed more signs of paranoia and hallucinations. Gray said the family observed him taping his computer camera, breaking a car key fob out of fear of being followed and being caught talking about someone who wasn’t there.

“Even during family gatherings, he would sit, apparently he had a place on the couch and that’s where he sat,” Gray said. “He would smoke a hookah and not talk to people. He was there but not engaged at all.”

Gray also testified that Alissa’s older brothers said they had family members who were being followed by government agencies based on their ethnicity.

Gray added Alissa was very non-communicative in his evaluations and said he heard screaming or yelling voices in his head but couldn’t necessarily discern what they were saying. Alissa also reportedly said the voices didn’t frighten or concern him.

The jury also watched videos of the sanity evaluations that occurred this year in which Alissa answered no when asked if the voices ever told him to hurt other people, if the voices instructed him to commit a mass shooting and if he believed the voices would stop if he committed the shooting.

In a video played for the jury, Dr. Loandra Torres could be seen asking Alissa, “Why did you purchase the gun?” to which Alissa responded, “To commit a mass shooting.” Then Torres said, “Why did you want to commit a mass shooting?”

He responded, “The ces.” “Essentially, this once again left us with no evidence that the voices had played any substantial role in what took place,” Gray said. “He readily conceded that he knew this behavior was illegal and wrong.”

Gray later added, “It was our opinion that at the time of the offense, he was legally sane.”

Herold questioned Gray on Alissa’s response to the “potent anti-psychotic” medication he was on and his family’s perception of his mental illness.

Herold also argued that Gray could not definitively rule out that Alissa was insane at the time of the offense and that Alissa had been medicated for multiple years when the evaluations took place.

Herold said in the evaluation, Alissa was asked if he thought there was anyone responsible for the alleged offense and arrest and Alissa shook his head. Herold also said Alissa responded “no” when asked if he felt anything when he got shot. “In Colorado, someone can know it’s against the law and still not be able to tell right from wrong?” Herold said, which Gray confirmed.

Herold also played a video of an evaluation in which Alissa was asked what happened after he pulled into the King Soopers parking lot. “Uh, I started hearing voices, like killing, like killing voices, then I opened up the car door and started shooting,” Alissa is heard saying.

Video also showed Alissa’s response to being asked during the evaluation why if the voices didn’t tell him to do something specifically, did he say the shooting was because of the voices. Alissa said he assumed that the mass shooting would stop them.

Gray’s testimony wrapped up just after 5 p.m. Friday in which Assistant District Attorney Ken Kupfner reconfirmed multiple times that having severe mental illness does not mean someone is insane.

Kupfner also reiterated that Gray found no definitive evidence to prove Alissa was insane at the time of the offense.

Timeline of events

Lead Investigator Sarah Cantu showed the jury the timelines she made of Alissa’s alleged shooting-related actions between Jan. 1, 2021, and March 22, 2021.

The timeline encompassed much of what the jury had already heard about web searches and firearm and ammunition purchases.

After watching the video, victims’ family members left the courtroom for the morning break Friday and embraced one another, sniffled and wiped away tears.

The Friday proceedings began with Boulder Police Department Criminalist Wendy Kane talking to the jury through the gathering of evidence from Alissa at the hospital following the shooting.

During her testimony, District Attorney Michael Dougherty asked Kane if Alissa spoke to anyone who was not in the room, if he began yelling, if he was fixating on innocuous objects, if he was talking to himself or if he asked law enforcement who they were or why they were there. Kane said no to each question.

Boulder Police Officer Eric Talley, Denny Stong, 20; Neven Stanisic, 23; Rikki Olds, 25; Tralona Bartkowiak, 49; Teri Leiker, 51; Suzanne Fountain, 59; Kevin Mahoney, 61; Lynn Murray, 62; and Jody Waters, 65, were killed in the shooting.