Colorado man found guilty of murdering 10 people at King Soopers market in Boulder
A Colorado jury on Monday rejected an insanity defense and convicted the man who gunned down 10 people at a Boulder supermarket three years ago of murder.
Ahmad Alissa, 25, was found guilty on all 55 charges, including 10 counts of first-degree murder, in the March 22, 2021, assault at King Soopers.
He's likely to be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Each one of the verdicts, reached by the Boulder County panel, was read out loud in the courtroom of District Court Chief Judge Ingrid Bakke.
Jurors deliberated for about six hours after getting the case Friday afternoon.
Alissa remained seated as the verdicts were read and didn’t appear to show any demonstrative reaction. He appeared to speak with his defense team for much of this process.
Alissa’s defense lawyers hadn’t contested their client as the shooter, but argued for not guilty by diminished capacity because he could not distinguish between right and wrong when he opened fire. He was later diagnosed with schizophrenia.
The verdict and speed in which it was reached was expected, according to KUSA legal analyst Whitney Traylor.
The prosecution proved that Alissa showed all the hallmarks of knowing right from wrong in the days leading to the attack, such as going to his job, dropping his brother off at work and obeying all traffic laws, according to the legal analyst.
“I’m not surprised,” Traylor told the NBC affiliate. “I think it would have been difficult for a jury to come back with some other verdict.”
Alissa was arrested at the scene after he was shot in the leg by police.
Responding Boulder Police Officer Eric Talley, 51, was the first law enforcement agent to arrive at the King Soopers when he was killed. Talley was a father of seven and an 11-year veteran of the Boulder police force.
The other victims were Denny Stong, 20; Neven Stanisic, 23; Rikki Olds, 25; Tralona Bartkowiak, 49; Suzanne Fountain, 59; Teri Leiker, 51; Kevin Mahoney, 61; Lynn Murray, 62; and Jody Waters, 65.
Alissa, who lived in the Denver suburb of Arvada, purchased an assault weapon six days before the attack, according to an arrest affidavit.
Outside court, after the verdicts were read, the killer's brother insisted that loved ones didn't reasonably know about his potential for violence.
"We were in the front line. If we knew that he was dangerous, then he was going to be dangerous to us first, before anyone else," older brother Ali Aliwi Alissa told KUSA. "His sickness started to become normal to us, that he is antisocial."
Stanisic's sister, Nicolina Stanisic, fondly remembered how her repairman brother was always kind and often bought her ice cream.
"There are no words that describe how much we love and miss him," Nicolina Stanisic told the court during the sentencing phase after the verdict.
"Our life without Neven is not a complete, whole life. There's someone who is always missing and that is him in our household. Before we could always talk to each other and laugh. And now there's barely anything to talk and laugh about. Most days, it's silent."
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
