The gunman charged with murdering eight classmates, and two educators and wounding several others during a mass shooting at Santa Fe High School in May of 2018 remains incompetent to stand trial.
Galveston County Judge Lonnie Cox signed the order to have Dimitrios Pagourtzis recommitted to North Texas State Hospital for another 12 months.
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Pagourtzis was first declared incompetent to stand trial in 2019. Every year since, doctors at North Texas State Hospital inform the court whether Pagourtzis’s competency has been restored or if further treatment is needed.
Until his competency is restored, the criminal cases against Pagourtzis in state and federal courts remain in limbo.
As of Jan. 23, Pagourtzis has been at North Texas State Hospital for 1,513 days. According to state data obtained by KPRC 2 Investigates, the average time it took doctors in North Texas to restore a defendant’s competency was 229 days in fiscal year 2022, 227 in fiscal year 2023, and 126 days in fiscal year 2024.
As of Dec. 2023, state records showed Pagourtzis was one of only 11 patients who have been at the facility five years or longer for competency restoration.
According to State Health and Human Services Commission data, at the end of Oct 2023, it costs an average of $1,013 a day to treat a patient at North Texas State Hospital. The cost went up from $933 a day in March of 2023.
While court documents indicate Pagourtizs’s attorneys intend to seek an insanity defense if the case goes to trial, the issue of his competency is a separate matter.
An insanity defense deals with a defendant’s mental state at the time a crime was committed, while competency deals with the defendant’s current mental state. In a criminal setting, a defendant’s competency is determined through the “Dusky Standard.”
According to the US Dept. of Justice, the 1960 US Supreme Court case established, “the court must determine “whether [the defendant] has sufficient present ability to consult with his lawyer with a reasonable degree of rational understanding -- and whether he has a rational as well as factual understanding of the proceedings against him.”
Pagourtzis is charged with murdering students Chris Stone, Aaron McLeod, Angelique Ramirez, Jared Black, Kimberly Vaughan, Sabika Sheikh, Christian Garcia, Shana Fisher, and educators Cynthia Tisdale and Ann Perkins. He’s also charged with wounding more than a dozen others, including former Santa Fe police officer John Barnes, during his rampage.
Statement by Jack Roady, Galveston County District Attorney:
“The treating physicians at the North Texas State Hospital have once again reported that Santa Fe High School shooting defendant Dimitrios Pagourtzis has not yet been restored to competency to stand trial. They have requested that he be recommitted to their facility for up to 12 months so that they can continue their efforts to restore him to competency. This is, again, extremely disappointing and frustrating news. But the defendant remains confined and subject to these charges of capital murder and aggravated assault of a peace officer, and efforts to restore him to competency continue. We remain hopeful and committed to seeing this case tried and justice done.
It is our understanding that the trial court will schedule a setting in the next month or so to request additional information from the State Hospital about the defendant’s treatment and progress. This office will stay in communication with the victims and their families as further details develop.”
Statement from Defense Attorney Nicholas Poehl:
“We are not surprised, but nevertheless, disappointed that our client remains incompetent to stand trial. It grows ever more difficult to see a path forward when the prospects for his restoration steadily diminish the longer he remains incompetent. Our prayers are with everyone affected by this tragedy, and we continue to hope for an eventual resolution to this matter.”
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