Loukaitis Trial To Begin In 3 Killings Teen To Use Insanity Defense In School Shootings
A year and a half after three people were killed in a Lake Junior High School classroom, the teenager accused of those murders begins his trial today in a King County courtroom.
Attorneys for Barry Loukaitis, now 16, and Grant County prosecutors will start a weeklong effort to find jurors for the trial, expected to last five to eight weeks.
Many Grant County residents have criticized the long delays holding up the start of the trial.
Causing the delay were a change of judge, several attorney changes and the need to decide if Loukaitis would be tried as an adult.
He is charged with three counts of aggravated murder for killing teacher Leona Caires, 49, and fellow Frontier Junior High students Arnold Fritz and Manuel Vela, both 14.
He also is charged with attempted murder for severely wounding 15-year-old Natalie Hintz, another student.
He confessed shortly after the February 1996 shootings. Prosecutors say Loukaitis told police hours after the rampage that his main target was Vela, who reportedly had teased and taunted him.
After his confession, attorneys for Loukaitis filed a not-guilty plea on the basis of insanity.
If convicted of the murders, Loukaitis would spend the rest of his life in prison.
If a jury decides he was not able to tell right from wrong when the murders took place, Loukaitis would be confined inside a state mental institution.
Kittitas County Superior Court Judge Robert Cooper will hand out questionnaires today to 125 prospective jurors. Attorneys next week will screen the group, then hold individual and group interviews.
A key question will be attitudes by prospective jurors toward the insanity defense, said Loukaitis defense attorney Michael Frost.
Jury selection is likely to take most of next week, with formal opening statements expected around Aug. 25.
Frost has tried to arrange a plea bargain with Grant County Prosecutor John Knodell that would send Loukaitis to prison for less than a life sentence. The sides have been unable to arrive at an acceptable arrangement.
Frost said the essential defense will be that “this is a sick kid. Most of the people who have looked at him agree he was very disturbed at the time and suffered a psychotic episode and didn’t know the difference between right and wrong.”
Knodell said Loukaitis might have been emotionally disturbed, but legally he was still capable of making choices and forming intent to kill.
Prosecutors will also have experts testify that Loukaitis carefully prepared the shootings, acting out a scenario borrowed from a Stephen King novella.
Knodell was in Seattle preparing for the trial Thursday and was unavailable for comment. He is being assisted by Donna Wise, a King County deputy prosecutor who specializes in insanity pleas.
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