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The man who stormed The Capital Gazette’s newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland, with a shotgun and killed five employees last June just asked to change his plea to guilty.
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The shooter, who had threatened the newspaper’s journalists for several years, announced his intention to enter a guilty plea in all 23 charges against him Monday, but he’s still claiming he’s not criminally responsible by reason of insanity and his attorneys are requesting a jury trial to determine his competence.
The judge overseeing his case will have to accept that plea before its made official, according to the Capital Gazette.
Read more over at the Capital Gazette.
Previously, the 39-year-old gunman had pleaded not guilty and not criminally responsible, which is Maryland’s version of an insanity defense. His trial was scheduled to begin next Monday.
In the years leading up to the massacre, the shooter held an apparent grudge against the newspaper because it had reported on a 2011 criminal case against him. He allegedly stalking and harassing a woman. He had attempted to sue the paper for its coverage, but a judge dismissed the case because he couldn’t prove the reporting was in any way false.
READ: A history of violent threats didn’t stop the Maryland newsroom shooter from buying a guy
Cover image: Steve Schuh, county executive of Anne Arundel County, holds a copy of The Capital Gazette near the scene of a shooting at the newspaper’s office, Friday, June 29, 2018, in Annapolis, Md. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
