Defense opens in Santa Fe High School shooting civil trial * This is the full opening statements from Defense Attorneys Lori Laird and Roberto Torres A jury was selected Wednesday (7/31/2024) afternoon in the Santa Fe High School mass shooting civil trial. 7 men and 5 women plus two alternates (1 male and 1 female) from an initial pool of 115 potential jurors were seated at about 1:30 Wednesday afternoon. Opening statements began at around 2:30 PM In the case Dimitrios Pagourtzis the shooter and his parents Antonios Pagourtzis and Rose Marie Kosmetatos, are being sued by a number of parents, spouses of victims, along with victims themselves for the May 18, 2018 mass shooting at Santa Fe High School. Following the plaintiffs was Roberto Torres, the court assigned attorney for Dimitrios, who remains in a state mental hospital: * He wasn't just mentaly impaired. He was severely mentally impaired. * A gradiual decline mentally over 3 to 4 years. * “A very painful and very slow decent into his own personal hell.” * TORRES said Dimitros wasn't really controlling what he was doing. That physically he was doing these things but mentally it was “another Dimitrios” * Blamed being bullied by students and teachers. * While guns used belong to parents, the ammunition was not in house but sold illegally online “like ordering a pizza” by the online ammunition site Lucky Gunner. * “He pulled the trigger, but it wasn't really him.” After Roberto Torres was Lori Laird, the attorney for the parents of Dimitrios * Dimitrios was “delusional” that what he said was from someone who was dillusial and not someone of a right mind. * Dimitrios parents saw no outward signs of violence, erractic behaviour. * He had no run ins with the law, no discplinaty actions at school. * Parents were unaware of the online searches because most were done on school computers and the school district wasn't alerted to restricted searches on their own systems that are supposed to be monitored. * She gave family background close knit family. Active in church community where Dimitrios was a dancer. * Dimitrios was called Pork and Cheese by Santa Fe High School coaches. * He was taking AP classes and when was struggling she reached out to teachers and asked should he be in different classes and the teachers told her no he was “a bright kid” * That all his writings and statements were dillusonal and many not true. * Insanity and intelligence are not exclusive. You can both be inteliguent and smart. But also mentally unfit. * His dillsional thoughts convinced him he was being trained by the CIA to be a killer and at one point thought his parents were involved and wrote about killing them. * Dr Bradley Peterson a Professor of Psychiatry & the Behavioral Sciences and Pediatrics at USC will testify that a few months prior to and on day of shooting Dimitrios was mentally unhealthy. * Peterson was initually regained by Dimitrios criminal defense team and examined him two months after the shooting and again in 2019. His findings of mental incompentency were supported by physiatrists hired by the DA and appointed by the original criminal trial judge.

Posted by i45NOW at 2024-08-01 02:11:00 UTC