Texas shooting spree suspect may never face trial after found incompetent

AUSTIN, Texas - A man accused of going on a shooting rampage, killing six people last year, has been found incompetent to stand trial. Shane James Jr. may never face trial for the crimes in Austin and San Antonio.

"The case is paused," a criminal lawyer unaffiliated with the case, Jeremy Rosenthal, said.

A Travis County judge signed an incompetency filing for James last month. James currently faces many charges, including capital murder for a December 2023 shooting spree. James admitted to killing his parents in San Antonio after his father made a joke. Authorities said he then traveled to Austin and killed four more people and injured two officers and a cyclist.

In August, James made an interesting request.

"I want to represent myself," Shane James Jr. told the court.

His attorney, Russell Hunt, said they requested James receive a mental competency check, and he had refused.

"I thought it was unnecessary, it’s unfounded, it’s baseless, there’s no reason for it and they told me that they don’t believe I’m competent," James told the court.

"In cases where a person may be mentally incompetent, it's not at all unusual for that person not to believe that they're mentally incompetent," Hunt said.

Judge Clifford Brown told James if he wanted to represent himself, he’d have to have a competency evaluation regardless.

RELATED STORIES:

• Texas shooting spree: New details released in murder of suspect's parents
• Texas shooting spree: Defense attorney looking to negotiate plea deal
• Texas shooting spree: 6 dead, 2 officers injured in Austin and Bexar County

"What I’m going to suggest to you is that you work through your attorneys, and you speak with the expert psychologist that they have retained, and we can address that in the future," Judge Brown said.

In October 2024, James was found incompetent to stand trial. James is being ordered observation and treatment at a state mental health facility for up to 120 days with the goal of attaining competency to stand trial.

"They're treating him, they're medicating him, and they're trying to restore him again," Rosenthal said.

If James is not found competent in that time period, Rosenthal said, "For a murder or capital case, where the sentence is life, accordingly, they can keep you there forever, indefinitely until you regain competency, at which point you stand trial."

James must get into a state hospital first, though.

As of Nov. 12, 2024, the Travis County Sheriff’s Office said more than 130 people in the Travis County Jail have been found incompetent to stand trial and are waiting to receive treatment. James needs maximum security because of the level of the offenses he is charged with, so he is limited to staying at just two state hospitals. The person at the top of the list waiting for a maximum-security hospital has been waiting for more than 285 days.

James has a history of mental illness. An arrest warrant from Bexar County said James is schizophrenic. Family members said he continued to mentally decline after being discharged from the Army in 2015.

"We know that there was a mental health history here, but again there was nothing to indicate that this individual was going to commit a murder and certainly not one of this seriousness where you have multiple victims," Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales said.

In 2018, Dimitrios Pagourtzis admitted to shooting and killing eight students and two teachers at Santa Fe High School.

"The families and the victims have waited a very long time for justice," Galveston County District Attorney Jack Roady said.

The confessed shooter continues to be deemed incompetent to stand trial.

The case of Robert Lewis Dear Jr., who is accused of entering a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood with an assault rifle, shooting and killing three and injuring nine others in 2015, has been in limbo since he was found incompetent to stand trial in 2016.

Russell Eugene Weston, Jr., charged with killing two U.S. capitol police officers in 1998, has yet to be found competent to stand trial.

"If you never regain competency, then you're basically a ward of the state," Rosenthal said.

James has a hearing set in Travis County for January 27, 2025.