HOUSTON, Texas – The long-awaited civil trial over the mass shooting at Santa Fe High School will begin Monday.
The trial comes six years after eight students and two teachers were killed inside Santa Fe High School in 2018 when gunman Dimitrios Pagourtzis went on a shooting rampage.
The trial was set to begin at the end of May, but a judge pushed that date to July 29 to give plaintiffs’ attorneys more time to review documents from the criminal case.
Several family members of those killed and injured during the May 2018 rampage have sued the parents of the charged gunman, Dimitrios Pagourtzis.
Their lawsuit claims Antonios Pagourtzis and Rose Marie Kosmetatos should have done more to seek mental health treatments for their son and to ensure he did not have access to firearms.
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Pagourtzis was first declared incompetent to stand trial in November 2019. According to state records, it takes doctors at North Texas State Hospital an average of 227 days to restore a person’s competency. Pagourtzis has been undergoing treatment for more than 1,700 days. Poehl, Pagourtzis’s defense attorney, declined to say what exactly is his client’s diagnosis.
“His progress has been stalled since about 2022, there hasn’t been significant measurable progress since then,” said Poehl.
What caused the trial to be delayed?
During a hearing before Judge Jack Ewing in May, Galveston County District Attorney Jack Roady said he would be willing to hand over evidence relating to the period before the shooting. Roady said he would not provide evidence involving the day of the shooting or gathered after the murders.
Roady was specific in telling the judge that no photos or videos of crime scenes would be released to the plaintiffs’ attorneys.
Roady said he could have documents to the plaintiffs’ attorneys by mid-May, but it would take longer to review hundreds of witness statements to determine relevancy.
Judge Ewing said once the documents were provided he would draft a protective order to make sure the information remains confidential, determine relevance to the civil lawsuit, and give Pagourtzis’ defense attorney in the criminal case a chance to object to the release of certain information.
Attorneys for the families in the civil case also wanted to depose Pagourtzis and possibly have their expert determine his competency, but Judge Ewing denied that request since Pagourtzis is committed to a mental health hospital at this time.
SEE ALSO: Santa Fe alleged shooter remains incompetent to stand trial. What does that mean?
What’s supposed to happen during the trial?
Witnesses may include Santa Fe ISD teachers and administrators, police officers who responded to the shooting, and Galveston County Judge Mark Henry, who served as magistrate during the gunman’s arrest and booking into the Galveston County Jail.
Relatives of the victims and survivors are also expected to testify.
Also, people who knew the Pagourtzis family before the shooting are listed as potential witnesses.
According to court documents, experts are also set to testify about schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday.