A jury has reached its verdict in the trial of Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, who shot and killed 10 people in a March 22, 2021, massacre at a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colorado. Alissa pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to all charges.
The verdict will be read in court shortly. The jury deliberated for a little more than five and a half hours.
Alissa, 25, was charged with murder in the first degree, attempted murder in the first degree, assault and using a prohibited large-capacity magazine during the commission of a crime.
The trial has centered on Alissa’s mental state at the time. His attorneys didn’t deny he committed the shooting at a King Soopers grocery store. To determine whether he was legally insane at the time of the shooting, jurors needed to weigh whether they believed he was able to form intent or distinguish right from wrong.
Over the past few weeks, jurors heard 10 days of testimony, during which the prosecution argued that despite being diagnosed with schizophrenia after the shooting, Alissa was legally sane when he carried out the attack.
The shooter was found incompetent to stand trial in 2021 but then deemed competent in 2023 after undergoing treatment in a state hospital.
“The evidence in this case is straightforward. What happened on March 22 of 2021 is not a mystery; it was on video,” Assistant District Attorney Ken Kupfner said in his closing argument, before ticking through every felony count Alissa is facing and pointing to the actions that prosecutors say prove beyond a reasonable doubt he acted “after deliberation, and with intent.”
Alissa is “not somebody who is insane. … Somebody who thinks a mass shooting is fun, they’re sick. We agree he’s mentally ill. He has schizophrenia, but he’s not insane,” Kupfner said.
Alissa’s defense attorney Kathryn Herold told the jury in her closing argument that “this tragedy was borne out of disease, not choice.”
“Mr. Alissa committed these crimes because he was psychotic and delusional on March 22 of 2021,” Herold said. “We also know that but for the psychosis he was suffering, this tragedy would never have happened.”
