SANTA FE, Texas – The alleged gunman who shot and killed ten people at Santa Fe High School in 2018 remains incompetent to stand trial.
In a decision signed by a judge on Friday, Dimitrios Pagourtzis, who’s accused of murdering eight of his classmates and two educators as well as hurting another 13 people, was recommitted to a Texas state hospital. This is the fifth time he’s been recommitted since being found incompetent in 2019, just a year after he allegedly opened fire inside the high school on May 18, 2018.
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What does it mean to be incompetent to stand trial?
“So, that’s a very important question,” said Dr. Lokesh Shahani, a psychiatrist at UTHealth Houston. “There are a lot of elements that go into competency to stand trial.”
There are three main determinations that medical professionals look at when it comes to competency.
1. Does the defendant understand the charges and seriousness?
2. Are they in the right mental state?
3. Can they present themselves in a courtroom?
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“So, all of that, as a collective measure goes in determining whether the person’s competent to stand trial or incompetent, this trial,” said Dr. Shahani. “Do they understand the seriousness associated with the charges? Do they understand the outcomes of the proceedings that they go through? Do they understand that if they are found guilty, what’s going to happen with them? If they are not found guilty, what’s going to happen with them? And do they understand the choices they have in the legal system to navigate that charge? Secondly is are you in the right mental state to understand and process that information? So, when you are talking with your defense counsel when you’re talking with your defense attorney are you able to have like a rational decision discussion with them in order to help assist the case moving forward? The third thing is, do they understand, you know, how to present themselves in front of a court? When you go to the court and you need to talk with your judge or stand in front of the judge, do you understand the basic courtroom rules that apply to you?”
Competency is now, not when the crime was committed
A big miscommunication is that competency is only judged in the current time.
The mental status of a defendant during the time of the alleged crimes does not make an impact on competency.
“Competent to stand trial applies to when the person is in court. It does not apply to when actually the crime was committed,” Dr. Shahani said. “So, it’s very focused on how is that particular defendant presenting on the day when they’ve in front of the judge kind of defending themselves against the charge that they’re charged with.”
Competency vs. Insanity
There’s a big difference between competency and insanity. KPRC 2 Investigative Reporter Robert Arnold takes a deeper dive into the difference.
However, it’s important to understand to fully grasp competency.
“Those are two different things,” Dr. Shahani said. “Insanity applies to what the person’s mental state was when the crime was committed. Competent to stand trial is based on their mental health condition at the time of the court proceedings.”
Is incompetency permanent?
That’s a tough question to answer. Every single case is different.
Gage: “Is it possible that he may never be fit to stand trial? Never be competent to stand trial? [00:09:44][4.5]
Dr. Shahani: “It’s depending on someone’s mental health condition. Yes.”
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Since 2019, Pagourtzis has been receiving treatment at North Texas State Hospital. He’s been there for 1,513 days, according to data provided to KPRC 2 on January 23.
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.
Gage: “What if this hypothetically continues and he’s never found fit to stand trial? What happens to him from the medical side of things?”
Dr. Shahani: “So, obviously he, that particular individual would be in a secured state facility where appropriate, psychiatric treatment would be provided and all efforts would be made in order to make sure that this person achieves, you know, achieves the competency. However, there are patients who are, as we call it, treatment resistant, that no matter how strongly you treat them, the treatment resistant and would never respond to inpatient psychiatry care. And for those cases, I believe the legal system has ways on how they would address what they would want to do with that particular patient.”
As for the court case and charges of capital murder, the case stands frozen in time.
“Unfortunately for the both the families of the defendant and the families of the victim, the prosecution and the defense, essentially, yes, it is frozen in time,” said Attorney Cordt Akers. “At some point it stops. At some point he’s civilly committed. He could be committed to a state mental institution where he’d be under lockdown.”
Bottom line: If that were to happen, the victims and their families may never have closure in terms of justice.
“I knew there would be a final answer if he’s civilly committed for the rest of his life,” Akers said. “Unfortunately, I think this will be something that the families will be dealing with for quite some time.”
Pagourtzis has been recommitted to North Texas State Hospital for another 12 months.