Editor's note: Denver7 has chosen to not include the defendant's name in our coverage of the trial to respect victims and their loved ones, and to not glorify the defendant. This trial aims to determine if the defendant was insane or not at the time of the shooting — not if he shot and killed people at the King Soopers, which the defense is not contesting. Therefore, we have removed words such as "alleged" and "suspected" from our trial coverage when referring to him.
BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. — The jury trial is underway to determine if a defendant accused of shooting and killing 10 people at a King Soopers store in Boulder on March 22, 2021 was insane at the time of the shooting.
The defendant was arrested the same day as the mass shooting, but several competency hearings stalled the case. He was found competent to stand trial in August 2023 and pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity three months later. He faces a slew of charges, including 10 counts of first-degree murder, 38 counts of attempted murder, first-degree assault, and six counts of using a large-capacity magazine in a crime, plus multiple crimes of violence.
The 10 people who lost their lives that day were Suzanne Fountain, Rikki Olds, Boulder Police Officer Eric Talley, Jody Waters, Denny Stong, Tralona Bartkowiak, Neven Stanisic, Kevin Mahoney, Lynn Murray and Teri Leiker. Read more about them here.
Opening statements began on the morning of Sept. 5. Denver7 will follow each day of this trial. Read the latest below.
Denver7's Coverage of the Boulder King Soopers Shooting
Friday, Sept. 6
Witness testimony picked up on Friday morning after starting Thursday afternoon, following opening statements.
The defendant walked into the court around 8:54 a.m. Before the testimony began, the court addressed a new development — a juror had realized on Thursday that he knew one of the witnesses in a professional capacity. The judge, prosecution and defense all asked him several questions about his ability to remain impartial and fair. The court discussed his answers before all parties decided he could stay on the jury.
With that, witness Jason Hebrard, agent in charge with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI), took to the stand as the first member of law enforcement the jury would hear from. Prompted by questions from Michael Dougherty, district attorney for the 20th Judicial District, Hebrard said he has worked with CBI for eight years, and was in police work prior to that.
Watch Denver7's previous coverage of the Boulder King Soopers shooting in the video playlist above.
Hebrard has assisted in several mass murder cases, including this one in Boulder. He responded to the scene that day to provide investigative support to the Boulder Police Department and the district attorney's office.
One of his responsibilities in this case was to re-create the path of the defendant from his residence to the King Soopers store. This included obtaining surveillance video from a variety of sources, such as neighbors, along the defendant's route. He also used digital evidence to track what happened in the days leading up to the shooting.
A doorbell camera from a resident near his home captured a video of the defendant carefully driving through snowy streets to his home in a dark Mercedes sedan on March 16, 2021, getting out of the car and "manipulating items" in the trunk, including a large white box that is commonly used to store a recently purchased firearm, Hebrard said. In the video, the defendant is seen carrying the white box inside. Through the course of the investigation, Hebrard discovered that the defendant had purchased the gun at a nearby store that same day.
This surveillance footage was played in court.
The prosecution then played a second video, this one from March 22, 2021. It showed the defendant leaving his home with a backpack — which appeared to be one typically associated with storing weapons — around 1:53 p.m.
Dougherty asked if the defendant appeared confused. Hebrard said no. He described the defendant's careful, normal driving as he made his way to the supermarket.
The defense said they did not have any questions for Hebrard, so there was no cross-examination and the witness was released.
Watch our full coverage from day two of the trial below.
The second witness on Friday was Christopher Pyler, a detective with the Westminster Police Department. Westminster is roughly 15 miles southeast of Boulder.
Pyler has worked on the FBI Rocky Mountain Safe Streets Task Force for nine years, investigating violent crimes around the Denver metro area. He is also a member of the FBI's Cellular Analysis Survey Team (CAST), which conducts analysis on cell phone records, and is considered an expert in that field.
The CAST was brought in to look at records in the days after the shooting, he said. About three to four months ago, he was asked to formally analyze the defendant's cell phone records between January 2021 and March 2021. Because the Mercedes that the defendant drove to the crime scene is a connected car that communicates with a cellular network, Pyler also reviewed that data.
Pyler said the following information was gleaned from those records, as well as other evidence:
- Jan. 19, 2021: Credit card records showed purchases at Westminster Arms in Arvada. Both the defendant's cell phone and the Mercedes were using towers near the store at the same time as the purchase.
- Feb. 10, 2021: Records showed another gun was purchased at Westminster Arms, and the cell phone and car were using cell towers in the same area.
- Feb. 22, 2021: Records showed a purchase at Eagles Nest Armory in Arvada, but this is near the defendant's home and workplace, and therefore is considered not as conclusive.
- March 6, 2021: A transaction was posted by the bank showing a purchase at Westminster Arms. The cell phone pinged a nearby tower, but the Mercedes did not.
- March 16, 2021: A transaction was posted at Eagles Nest Armory, and both the cell phone and car pinged off nearby towers. Like the Feb. 22 case, this is not as conclusive because it is near the defendant's home and workplace.
On March 22, 2021 — the day of the shooting — both the car and the cell phone used towers in the area of the Table Mesa King Soopers, Pyler said.
During a cross-examination, defense attorney Sam Dunn asked Pyler if he had records of the defendant's devices near that supermarket prior to the day of the shooting. Pyler responded that he had in mid-February, but "it was very brief."
The court then took a break.
The third witness of the day was Aaron Wise, a sergeant for the Boulder Police Department. Wise was hired by the department in 2011, became a detective in late 2019 and was promoted to sergeant in late 2021.
He is the first member of the Boulder Police Department — which lost one of their own officers in the mass shooting — to testify in this trial.
Wise was out of state on March 22, 2021. Upon his return, he was officially assigned to the investigation.
One of his early responsibilities was to track the defendant as he drove the Mercedes through town. To do this, he used traffic cameras, surveillance cameras, security cameras and more.
Through questioning by Dougherty, Wise walked the jury through multiple videos in the 2 p.m. hour from the day of the shooting, all showing the shooter's car, he said. He pointed out one point where the Mercedes stopped in a neighborhood for about one minute off Darley Street before continuing to head westbound.
Once the defendant reached the parking lot, he stayed in his car for about five minutes before getting out and shooting Neven Stanisic, the first of the 10 victims that day, Wise said.
The defense did not cross-examine Wise, and he was dismissed.
Sarah Moonshadow, who lives in South Boulder, was the fourth witness on Friday. Moonshadow was at the store the day of the shooting with her adult son, who is now 25 years old.
She spoke with Scripps News Denver just after the shooting, and recalled hearing four gunshots while they stood in the checkout lane. Along with her son, they fled from the store.
Boulder
Witnesses describe active shooter scene at Boulder King Soopers
In court Friday, she said March 22, 2021 was a "normal" day for her. The trip to King Soopers that day with her son was a "spontaneous" stop for strawberries and tea, she told the jury. After gathering what they needed at the supermarket, they made their way to the self-checkout area.
“Right as we were about done, I started hearing something that I just couldn't even wrap my brain around. I knew what I was hearing, I just couldn’t process that I was hearing it," she said of the first gunshots. "I looked over at my son, and he just looked like my little baby boy, scared and confused… And he said, 'That’s a gun.' And I said, 'I know, I know, get down.'"
Moonshadow said they heard the gunshots get louder as the shooter neared where they were crouching on the ground at the checkout.
“I could hear people falling — I just couldn’t even believe I was hearing it," she said.
She said she stood up a little and looked between the checkout lines, meeting the shooter's eyes.
Moonshadow realized he was the shooter and that he was close to them, as he raised a firearm in their direction, she recalled. So, they made a break for the store's west doors.
"Not thinking about anything else, other than we need to keep moving unpredictably so that we’re not traveling in a straight line," she said.
As they ran out, Moonshadow said she made eye contact with Boulder Police Officer Eric Talley, who was shot and killed that day.
The defense did not have any questions for cross-examination, and Moonshadow was released.
Court then broke for a lunch break.
After lunch witness No. 5, Elan Shakti, testified. She was in the King Soopers at the time of the shooting.
Shakti, who said she was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, had to run several errands on March 22, 2021, including a prescription at the King Soopers. She also wanted to pick up flowers for a friend who had had a death in the family.
Luckily, she changed her mind, and decided against picking up the medication that day, and only went to the west side of the building, where the flowers were. Just as an employee finished helping her, she heard the gunshots. She recalled thinking they were fireworks. But the employee told her to run and another person told her somebody in the supermarket had a gun.
The 79-year-old walked away quickly, but slipped and fell. She said she could not get up.
“I was instantly praying, when I found out I couldn’t move myself. I just said, 'God, I hope you're ready for me, because I think this is it,'" Shakti told the court.
Nobody was around to help her up and she could still hear gunshots, she said. She said a quick prayer just before a young man helped her to her feet and out of the store.
Shakti ended up with a compression fracture, which still gives her problems today, she said.
The defense did not have any questions for her and she was dismissed.
Witness No. 6 was Haden Steele, who works with children with emotional and behavioral disabilities. He was in the King Soopers on March 22, 2021 with his roommate to buy food before heading to work. Around 2:30 p.m., they reached the self-checkout area.
Steele said he remembered hearing a few pops before the shooter came in, and assumed it was construction until a woman started screaming. Then he saw a man with a gun enter the store and begin firing at people.
“Just chaos, people screaming, running, gunshots, people mobbing toward the back exit to get away from everything that was going on in the front of the store," he recalled.
Steele ran to the back of the store to an exit and then went home.
The defense said it did not need to cross-examine Steele.
After hearing from a few survivors from that day, prosecutors called up the seventh witness, Agent Joel Hegarty, special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). He was involved since that first day, and specializes in tracing firearms.
The district attorney called him to the stand to explain the various firearms the shooter used, and where they came from.
Hegarty provided the following background on the firearms:
- A Ruger AR-556 pistol was purchased by the defendant from Eagles Nest Armory in Arvada on March 16, 2021. Background check was completed. Total cost was more than $1,000. This firearm was found at the scene.
- A Girsan MC28 SA 9mm pistol was purchased by the defendant from Westminster Arms in Arvada on Feb. 10, 2021. Background check was completed. Total cost was about $900. This firearm was found at the scene.
- A Ruger AR-556 rifle was found at the defendant's home. It was purchased by him from Westminster Arms on Jan. 19, 2021. Background check was completed.
- A Sarsilmaz K2-45 35 caliber pistol was purchased by the defendant from Westminster Arms on Jan. 19, 2021, the same day he picked up the above firearm.
- A Beretta M9A3 was recovered on March 23, 2021 at the defendant's home. It was purchased on April 16, 2020 from a Sportsman's Warehouse store and was registered to a person with an address in Thornton, not the defendant. Hegarty said he learned the defendant purchased the firearm directly from the Thornton resident.
Hegarty also provided details about the exact dates and orders the defendant appeared to have purchased through GrabAGun.com, an online gun retailer, as many of the weapons from Westminster Arms were purchased by him via the website. Aside from the guns, all of the purchases he made — like ammunition — were shipped directly to his home, Hegarty said.
The defense said it did not need to cross-examine the witness, and he was dismissed.
The court went into an afternoon recess.
Julie Keeton was the prosecution's eighth witness of the day. She started working at the Table Mesa King Soopers in March 2020, and became a head clerk in January 2021.
Keeton said Rikki Olds — one of the 10 people killed in the shooting — was expected to arrive around 2:30 p.m., but always came in early. On March 22, 2021, she arrived around 2 p.m. Keeton recalled that Olds had a wrap around her knee, as she had recently fallen.
“She was a riot, a funny person," she said of Olds. “Very detail-oriented. She could be direct, but she always did it with a smile and she was effective, she got things done, and she was very diplomatic and delegated responsibilities."
Lynn Murray, an Instacart employee who also died that day, was nearby checking out groceries to deliver. Keeton knew her well, and said she was at the supermarket nearly every day. Teri Leiker, another victim, was also working at the time, and Denny Stong, who worked at the store but was off that day, were also at the checkout area.
The first few gunshots sounded like a nail gun on the roof, Keeton remembered. But then somebody yelled about a shooter.
“I turned around to look at the person who said that and a few more gunshots," she said. "And people were streaming in from the outside, the east side. And Denny and Rikki were standing over there, by the east side checkout.”
As she made her way down an aisle to seek safety, she remembered looking back once and saw the profile of the shooter, who was backlit.
Witness nine was James William Graham of Erie. He went to the King Soopers to grab lunch around 2:15 p.m. or 2:20 p.m. and went inside and wandered the aisles, looking for what he wanted to eat. He grabbed ramen and went to check out.
He said he heard a loud bang, and initially thought somebody had dropped something. After realizing they were gunshots, he started running.
"Chaos, people screaming. I heard some stuff breaking. Glass," he said, adding that he thought he was being shot at. "Things being broken around me. The smell of gunpowder."
Graham said he never saw the shooter, but believed he heard him yell an expletive.
Somebody near the loading dock area in the back of the store yelled at him to come over in that direction.
"When I was running around the bakery, I felt a sharp pain in my back," he said. He thought he had been hit by the gunfire. "It turned out I pulled a muscle. Strained it."
Graham stayed outside the southwest corner of the building until police told him he could leave.
District Attorney Dougherty asked Graham about the impact of that day.
“I was devastated," he answered. "Couldn’t eat. Couldn't sleep. Anxiety. Depression. Had to go through therapy.”
Graham spoke briefly with Scripps News Denver on the day of the shooting, calling it "the most terrifying event I've ever been through."
The defense had no questions for Graham and he was dismissed.
Court then ended the day. The trial will resume Monday morning.
