BOULDER, Colo. — Three years after a gunman murdered 10 people at a King Soopers in Boulder, one of them a police officer, the case against the suspect remains on track to go to trial in August.
But that date is only “tentative” — owing to the mental health of the suspect, 24-year-old Ahmad Alissa.
He was first deemed not competent to proceed to trial in 2021, meaning he couldn’t understand the proceedings or assist in his own defense. After two years of treatment at the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo, including forced medication, his competency was restored. Even so, Judge Ingrid Bakke, who is overseeing the case, termed his mental health “tenuous.”
Then in November, defense attorneys entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, triggering a new evaluation aimed at determining his mental state on March 22, 2021, the day of the shootings.
The judge initially ordered that evaluation be done by early January — but it’s taken longer and remains ongoing.
“It’s super frustrating when you get a little bit of hope, and that gets crushed,” said Bob Olds, whose niece, Rikki Olds, died at the store where she was a service manager. She was 25.
“It's been, you know, three years of just trying to look forward, getting smacked back down," Olds said.
The suspect faces 111 separate charges:
- 10 counts of first-degree murder;
- 47 counts of attempted first-degree murder;
- 1 count of first-degree assault;
- 6 counts of possession of a large-capacity magazine during the commission of a felony;
- 47 counts of crime of violence with a semiautomatic assault weapon, a sentencing enhancer.
If convicted of even a single count of first-degree murder, he would go to prison for life with no possibility of parole.
If found not guilty by reason of insanity, he would be committed to the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo for treatment for an indefinite period of time — likely for the rest of his life.
The delays have left Olds frustrated.
“I’m not able to fully grieve my niece,” he said.
Olds said his niece Rikki was a person of compassion. After her death, he said someone told him about the day she encountered a mother with a young child who would not stop crying. Rikki got the youngster a balloon, which improved his mood immediately. Then he let go of it, and it drifted to the ceiling, so she got him another one.
“Through this, I’ve become a better person because of what happened to my niece,” Olds said. “Hearing all the stories of how compassionate she was, and the way she handled herself with total strangers, has really impacted me and made me become a more empathetic person.”
But those happy feelings are tempered by the long wait for the suspect to face a jury.
“It’s just been the most frustrated I've probably ever been in my life,” he said.
After it was clear that the sanity evaluation would not be done in early January, Judge Bakke ordered the Colorado Department of Human Services, which oversees the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo, to file bi-weekly updates on the process of evaluating the suspect’s sanity.
Court records show that the department has filed 10 reports since then. Because they deal with the man’s mental health, they are sealed.
But the clearest indication that things are moving is that tentative court dates remain on the calendar — five days of motions hearings the first week of June, and the trial itself beginning Aug. 5.
Olds said he’s skeptical.
“Personally, I don't hold much value in this starting on time in August,” he said. “I don't — just because of the last three years of frustration, of heartache, of re-victimization, that all 10 of these families have been through.”
Still, Olds said that whether the trial occurs then or at a later time, he’ll be there every day.
“This is my last fight for my niece. This is my last stand for her. And I'm gonna see this through," Olds said.
More coverage of the King Soopers shooting in Boulder:
SUGGESTED VIDEOS: Latest from 9NEWS