The prosecution rested its case Monday in the King Soopers mass shooting trial, and the defense began calling its witnesses, including the accused shooter’s mother.

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.

Alissa is accused in a mass shooting that occurred on March 22, 2021, at the Table Mesa King Soopers.Boulder Police Officer Eric Talley, Denny Stong, 20; Stanisic, 23; Rikki Olds, 25; Tralona Bartkowiak, 49; Teri Leiker, 51; Fountain, 59; Kevin Mahoney, 61; Lynn Murray, 62; and Jody Waters, 65, were killed in the shooting.

‘We didn’t miss anything’

Forensic psychiatrist Loandra Torres, who conducted a number of sanity evaluations with Alissa, took the stand as the prosecution’s last witness. She said she came to the determination Alissa did not meet the two prongs of insanity; the ability to form a culpable mental state and the ability to decipher right from wrong during the incident.

“In the months leading to the offense, he demonstrated the ability to purchase firearms, purchase ammunition,” Torres said regarding Alissa’s ability to form a culpable mental state.

She continued, “All of that taken together demonstrates a capacity of planning and a capacity to organize a behavior enough to carry out a task.”

Torres said she and Dr. Thomas Gray — who testified earlier in the trial — did not have evidence that suggested he was insane at the time of the offense.

“We ended up in a situation where we lacked evidence to suggest that, at the time of the crime, his mental health symptoms made him incapable of distinguishing right from wrong,” Torres said.

Torres testified that she never heard Alissa say something that sounded delusional. Torres asked Alissa if his plan to die was his or the voices’ and Alissa responded that it was his idea to die.

The jury was also shown footage of another sanity evaluation by a different doctor, Jeffrey Janofsky, in June 2024. The defense filed a motion arguing that Torres should not be able to talk about the evaluation with Janofsky, but Chief Judge Ingrid Bakke denied the motion.

In the video, Alissa is heard saying that the voices sound like “ah,” “oh,” or “hey,” but they never said specific words. Alissa described the voices as loud and heard in both ears, before saying that sometimes he can’t sleep because of them.

Torres said watching the evaluation from June made her more confident in her finding that Alissa was sane.

“What strikes me when I see these videos and hear his responses is there’s nothing particularly delusional about them,” Torres said. “It makes me feel like we didn’t miss anything.”

In the videos, Alissa said he first thought of committing a mass shooting at the end of October 2019; that he practiced shooting so his guns didn’t jam during the shooting; and he had “a lot of thoughts about committing a mass shooting.”

When Janofsky in the video asked Alissa why he took his clothes off after the shooting, Alissa said he did it because he didn’t want to die.

“If I had a vest on and a gun they might shoot me,” Alissa said.

Despite this, Alissa said he had a plan to die on the day of the shooting. Alissa told Janofsky that when he shot the first victim, he felt no emotions. Torres attributed this to Alissa’s schizophrenia and said a “diminished emotional capacity” is a symptom.

In the June 2024 evaluation, Alissa also said he was “hyped up” during the shooting and throughout had a “pretty good feeling.”

He continued, describing the moment he killed Talley.

“I was on the side and he came in the entrance and I shot him,” Alissa said.

The evaluator then asked Alissa where he shot him.

“His head,” Alissa said.

Defense attorney Sam Dunn confirmed with Torres that Alissa glared at her with “intensity and wide-eyedness” during parts of the evaluations and that his eyes would dart around the room as if he could hear or see something others couldn’t.

Dunn asked Torres about schizophrenia symptoms and the possibility that Alissa was feigning them.

“It has never been our opinion that he has feigned any of his symptoms,” Torres said.

Torres has described how symptoms of schizophrenia can come and go when someone is in the throes of psychosis.

“We do think some of the voices played some sort of role in this event,” Torres said.

‘Poor insight and judgment’

The prosecution rested its case Monday and the defense called its first witness, Dr. Hareesh Pillai. Pillai is Alissa’s primary psychiatric provider at the state hospital and diagnosed him with schizophrenia.

Pillai said when he first met Alissa in December 2021 he noticed thought blocking, decreased speech, loss of train of thought, decreased motivation, isolative behavior and response to internal stimuli, specifically he repeatedly looked over his shoulder at a noise that wasn’t there.

“I would say Mr. Alissa has both poor insight and judgment,” Pillai said.

Pillai said insight is knowing something is wrong, and judgment is doing something that is wrong.

“He carries a poor prognosis long term,” Pillai said. “He will have a low level of functioning throughout the rest of his life.”

Pillai added, “(He will) continue to have symptoms of schizophrenia despite treatment.”

Dougherty questioned the amount of medical care Alissa receives at the hospital and confirmed with Pillai that Alissa only receives 40 minutes of direct care a week.

Pillai clarified that different groups provide care throughout the day and the unit is set up to allow medical staff to see how well patients are responding to their medication.

Dougherty stated that Alissa had refused to be involved in treatment groups and sessions but also recently shown involvement in more social events on the unit, including karaoke, bingo, a Sherlock Holmes discussion group, cornhole, a Dungeons and Dragons group, going to the gym and watching movies.

Herold clarified that Alissa is in the highest acute setting in the hospital.

‘He was sick’

Khadija Alhidid, Alissa’s mother, took the stand and testified about his childhood and schizophrenic symptoms.

“He was cute, he was smart, he was well,” Alhidid said through an interpreter. “He was just like any other child.”

Alhidid said Alissa “started having changes” in 2019.

“He would say to me, ‘The FBI are chasing me,’” Alhidid said. “I would tell our son, ‘We don’t have any issues with anyone. I don’t know what they would want.’ We didn’t know the reason or why this occurred.”

Alhidid said Alissa began isolating and would be found laughing to himself, talking to himself and doing things out of fear that he was being followed, such as taping over cameras and breaking key fobs.

“He was sick but what was the condition? We did not know,” she said. “He was, how can I say it, crazy. He changed. Yeah, he changed.”

Alhidid said the morning of the shooting she had breakfast with Alissa. She told him to get a haircut that day before she left for the stores. She didn’t see Alissa again until the trial.

“He is sick,” Alhidid said. “He did not know right from wrong. No sane person will do anything like that.”

Dougherty asked Alhidid if she saw a rifle Alissa owned before the shooting. She confirmed that one time she heard banging upstairs, Alissa’s brothers went to see what it was and returned downstairs with a jammed rifle. Alissa then promised to return the rifle the next day, his mother testified.

As his mother walked out of the room at the end of the day, Alissa wiped away tears with a tissue.