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 the case was stalled by several competency hearings. 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 attempted murder counts are according to the latest court documents filed online.
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
Thursday, Sept. 5
About three and a half years after 10 people were shot and killed at a Boulder King Soopers, the trial for the defendant began on Thursday morning in Boulder County. Judge Ingrid Bakke will oversee the proceedings.
Sitting in the packed rows of the courtroom are Erika Mahoney and Olivia Mackenzie. The two women have found strength and comfort within each other, sharing a bond that’s difficult to comprehend.
Erika’s father, Kevin Mahoney, went to the King Soopers off Table Mesa frequently. He was shot four times and killed while returning his grocery cart in the parking lot.
“My dad was my protector, and I always wish I could have protected him, but I just know that he must have felt so bad in that moment, so vulnerable,” Erika said outside of the courthouse on Thursday. “I see my dad's photo, and I still feel like he's alive. I still feel like I could go call him after this.”
Olivia’s mother, Lynn Murray, was picking up groceries while working as an Instacart driver. Prosecutors said Murray fought hard to live, but said the shooter was intent on killing her. She was also shot four times.
“When you hear that they ran, you almost think like there's a chance they could get away still,” said Olivia. “I almost like want to encourage her to keep running.”
The two have been counting down the days until the trial – but, nothing could prepare them for walking into that courtroom on Thursday.
“We've never done this before – stepping into the unknown yet again,” Erika said. “Wanting to be a voice for our parents, but also wanting to protect ourselves is a really hard balance.”
Erika said when she first saw the jurors, who are predominantly female, she felt like crying. She understands the jury is taking on a heavy trial filled with responsibility.
The two women are not seeking any kind of comfort from the judicial system.
“It was so shocking and we didn't get the chance to say goodbye,” Erika said. “I will never feel closure.”
The defendant walked into the courtroom Thursday wearing a white button-down shirt and glasses. He is represented by Kathryn Herold and Sam Dunn.
Michael Dougherty, district attorney for the 20th Judicial District, began the day with his opening statements in front of the jury.
He described the King Soopers as a place where people are constantly moving around — walking up and down the aisles and around the parking lot. He listed out multiple businesses nearby, also bustling with customers.
"It is a regular, normal day in beautiful and idyllic Boulder, Colorado, and that peace is about to be destroyed," Dougherty said.
Watch our coverage from day one of the jury trail in the video below.
The day of the shooting, Monday, March 22, 2021, around 2:25 p.m., customers were stocking up for the week with food. The shooter — who drove to the store from Arvada with a rifle bag, loaded assault rifle, ammunition and carrier vest — was sitting in a black car in the parking lot, Dougherty said.
"He went there to kill as many people as he possibly could on that day," he said. "The people inside the supermarket have no idea what's about to happen... The victims were completely random. But the murders were absolutely planned, deliberate and intentional."
Each one of the 10 people killed had family, loved ones, careers and dreams, he said. They went to King Soopers thinking about what they would make for dinner and who they would eat with — "a loved one they would never see again because they were about to be gunned down inside a supermarket and out in the parking lot, a place where they all felt safe," the district attorney said.
He tried to kill 25 other people, Dougherty said, forever impacting many lives that day.
Dougherty then listed the victims and briefly described their lives and deaths:
- Neven Stanisic, 23. He was part of a close immigrant family that had moved to the United States for a better life. He had just fixed an espresso machine inside the King Soopers. At 2:27 p.m., he was talking with a coworker about his next work site. Within two minutes of that call, he would die.
- Kevin Mahoney, 61. He was a loving husband, father and grandfather. He visited this supermarket often. He had a funny exchange with another customer who had parked next to him. They both started loading their cars, laughing with each other. Mahoney went to return his cart. He was killed a few minutes later.
- Tralona Bartkowiak, 49. She owned a clothing store on Pearl Street. She had her window down as she drove through the King Soopers parking lot, which is likely how she heard the first shots.
- Rikki Olds, 25. She worked at the King Soopers as a head clerk. Her family, as well as her friends and colleagues at the store, loved her. At the time of the shooting, she was working in the pharmacy and customer service area helping people. The shooter would come in the doors in that same area.
- Denny Strong, 20. Stong worked at the King Soopers, but was off from work on that day. He stopped at the store to grab lunch. His mom, who also worked at the store, was on her lunch break and eating in the car when her son was killed.
- Lynn Murray, 62. She was a loving mother who worked for Instacart — a grocery delivery service that became very popular amid the pandemic and still was at this time. She was at the store that day to shop for others who were unable to shop for themselves. She was checking out when she was killed.
- Teri Leiker, 51. She overcame significant challenges and had worked at the King Soopers for many years. She was a beloved fixture there. She was bagging groceries for a man when she was shot and killed.
- Jody Waters, 65. She had a great impact on the world and has a loving family. When the shooting began, she hid under a checkout stand.
- Suzanne Fountain, 59. She lived in Broomfield and frequented a hair salon in the Table Mesa shopping center. She had gone there that day. Because she was already in that area, she went to the Table Mesa King Soopers to shop for groceries.
- Eric Talley, 51. He became a police officer as a second career and loved serving the community. When he got the call about the shooting, he raced to the scene and because of him, many people are alive today.
Dougherty reminded the jury that they were in the courtroom because the person who killed those 10 people was in the same room, and he pointed to the defendant.
"He asserted he is not guilty by reason of insanity," he said. "...Was the defendant so diseased or defective of mind that he was incapable of distinguishing right from wrong with respect to the murder of 10 individuals and the attempted murder of 25 more? Or suffering from a condition of mind caused by mental disease or defect, as the statue reads, that prevented him from forming a culpable mental state? And in this case, it's going to be intent. That's what this case is going to come down to."
The central issue is the defendant's claim of being not guilty by reason of insanity, he said, clarifying that mental illness does not mean somebody is insane. Dougherty said if the jury applies the law and looks at the evidence, "you will reach the right decision in this case."
He then began to go through some of the evidence that would be presented in more depth later in the trial, warning that it is "brutal and horrific and emotional."
“How he carried out the shooting on March 22 will tell you a lot about his ability for intent,” Dougherty said. “How he did what he did, on that day, in that moment, will help answer the question for you of was he able to form intent.”
Dougherty walked through more details of how the shooter killed Stanisic outside the store, then Mahoney in the parking lot and Bartkowiak on the pedestrian ramp to the supermarket. Olds and Stong moved toward the east doors of the store, seemingly unsure what the sounds were, Dougherty said, adding that others thought the sound was construction on the roof. The defendant killed Olds — the only person shot just once — before following Stong and shooting him multiple times, Dougherty said.
The defendant realized his magazine was empty and popped in another one, he said.
“Not a moment of delay,” Dougherty said. “He was ready, he was prepared. He had practiced, he had planned for this.”
At this point, people in the store were screaming, “Active shooter,” he said, and people were running and hiding. The defendant saw Murray and closed in, shooting her four times. Leiker, who initially ducked, stood up when the defendant neared and shot her.
After missing two other people, the defendant saw Waters hiding under the checkout counter and pointed his assault rifle at her.
“You’ll have to answer the question at the end: Could the defendant form the intent to kill Jody Waters? When he lifted up his rifle and pointed it at her, right here, could he form the intent to kill Jody Waters?” the district attorney asked.
In court, he showed a snapshot of the moment before the defendant fired four times at her. The courtroom was able to see Waters hiding underneath the checkout counter, and the defendant standing over her.
“These eight lives were taken in 68 seconds,” Dougherty said.
During the shooting, the defendant came across a 90-year-old man shopping, walking slowly and holding onto his cart for balance. He had assumed the noises were coming from the roof. The defendant dropped his gun at his side and walked away to find other people, Dougherty said. They encountered each other one additional time in the store, and the defendant again ignored him.
“What does this tell you?” Dougherty said. “This will tell you that the defendant was intentionally targeting people who were in fear, who were running, who he had power over, who he was scaring, and who he could chase and kill.”
Boulder King Soopers Shooting
These are the 10 victims of the Boulder King Soopers shooting
At this point, the store was quiet because people were trying to stay concealed.
The defendant then found Fountain, who had been hiding and made a break for it. He shot her three times, and continued hunting, Dougherty said.
Fourteen of the attempted murder victims will testify, and Dougherty previewed a few of their stories: One man who played dead for an hour. Another who pulled a muscle running for his life and hiding in the snow. A mother and son in the store who tried to count the bullets to guess when the shooter would need to reload so they could escape.
Police then started arriving, as people had called 911 to report the shooting. Dispatchers sent the information — callers guessed one to three active shooters — to all emergency personnel in Boulder County.
Police from Denver, Lakewood, Golden, Arvada, Westminster, Broomfield, Jefferson County SWAT, and many other agencies all responded. That included Talley, a Boulder police officer. Dougherty showed a clip of him speeding to the scene, weaving in and out of traffic.
“Because Officer Talley and other Boulder police officers got there as fast as they did, no other civilians were injured or killed that day,” Dougherty said. “But Officer Talley sacrificed his life in that response.”
The district attorney said the defendant heard the officers’ radios at the store and prepared to ambush them. He then shot Talley in the head.
Boulder King Soopers Shooting
Police use officer Eric Talley's handcuffs to arrest Boulder shooting suspect
As more law enforcement arrived, the defendant moved to the back of the store.
“What he has done is beyond wrong, and he knows it,” Dougherty said. “And he knows police are there in response to what he has done. He’s distinguishing between wrong and right.”
The shooter then opened fire on the officers, Dougherty said, before a police officer shot him in the leg. The defendant stumbled around a bit. Boulder police used a loudspeaker from outside the store to demand that he surrender. Still inside the store, the defendant put down his firearms and ammunition, took off his clothes except for his underwear and put his hands up, ultimately surrendering and saying, “I surrender, I give up.” The district attorney again stressed that this showed the defendant knew the difference between right and wrong.
Police gave the shooter several commands, which he complied with, with no confusion. Other officers then began guiding the hiding survivors out of the store.
During his opening statement, Dougherty showed an animation in court multiple times — created with the help of the FBI and district attorney’s office — that showed how both the murder and attempted murder victims moved, where the murder victims died and where the defendant traveled.
Nearly everything that the defendant chose to do that day was captured on video, which would alone prove the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, the district attorney said.
“Could he form intent? Yes. Could he tell the difference between right and wrong? Yes,” Dougherty said.
The defendant never went to a doctor for his mental health before the shooting. After his arrest, every doctor the defendant saw confirmed that he had a mental illness, and authorities learned he had been struggling with it prior to the shooting.
“You’re going to hear during the course of the trial that the defendant has been examined by a bunch of different doctors. They determined the defendant has a mental illness, but it comes nowhere close to legally insane," Dougherty said.
Boulder King Soopers Shooting
King Soopers shooting suspect ordered to undergo competency evaluation
They opined that he had schizophrenia, he said, adding that millions of other people in the world do too. The defendant refused medication and treatment, or to talk about what had happened inside the King Soopers.
When the defendant entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, Judge Bakke ordered a state evaluation. Two doctors — who will testify in the trial — were able to determine that the defendant was sane on the day of the shooting. An outside expert, brought in by the prosecution, arrived at the same conclusion.
Dougherty outlined evidence of the defendant’s planning: searching online for information on 30-round magazines and the deadliest type of round or bullet, and purchasing an optic sight. He researched other mass shootings, as well as more than 6,000 images of guns, ammunition and equipment, and 400 images of bomb-making materials. Then he began purchasing items — guns, ammunition, equipment and bomb-making materials — which were found on his person, in his car outside the store and at his house. Dougherty added that he targeted Boulder.
The defendant allegedly planned the shooting for at least two months prior to March 22, 2021.
This trial will last two and a half weeks, he said, and the prosecution will call 60 witnesses. He told the jury that the court will not show any photos of the victims on the ground or their autopsies.
“It’s going to allow us, as the prosecution, as the people, to show you what you need but not every ounce of horror the defendant inflicted upon the world that day,” he said.
At the conclusion of the district attorney’s opening statements, the court took a brief break and then defense attorney Sam Dunn took to the stand for his opening statements.
“Over the next few weeks, this case is going to envelop you in the suffering and grief — those who lost their lives on March 22, 2021, those who survived, and those who lost loved ones and co-workers, because of the actions of my client,” he began.
During the defendant’s late teenage years, he began exhibiting signs that were the onset of schizophrenia, Dunn said. He became paranoid, had auditory hallucinations, namely screaming voices in his head, and socially withdrew. Those symptoms went untreated.
He stressed that the defense is not arguing that the person who killed the 10 people is not the defendant. The law in this matter is simple, he said, and the jury’s responsibility is to determine if the defendant could distinguish right from wrong — if he was legally sane or insane at the time of the shooting.
The law reads that a person can have intent and be insane at the same time, he said.
“The law in Colorado says that you can understand what you’re doing is illegal and you can be insane,” he further explained.
The defendant had a severe case of schizophrenia, which came with a “constellation of symptoms” leading up to and present on March 22, 2021, Dunn said. As of that day, he had never been treated for schizophrenia, and had never seen a doctor for a treatment plan. On that March day, he was in the “throes of a psychotic episode,” Dunn said.
Boulder King Soopers Shooting
State finds Boulder King Soopers suspect competent to stand trial
In a video played in court, a doctor involved in the sanity evaluations was heard asking the defendant earlier in 2024, “You said voices are what caused or resulted in you conducting a mass shooting?” He responds, “The consistent voices made me commit the mass shooting.”
The jury will hear evidence about the defendant’s ability to determine right from wrong, Dunn said, and it will show that his illness influenced his behavior and thinking that day.
He was arrested immediately after the shooting, and since December 2021, has been a patient at a state mental health hospital, where he underwent treatment and took medication for severe and treatment-resistant schizophrenia.
“We’re here three and a half years later because of (the defendant’s) illness,” Dunn said.
Illnesses run a spectrum, and the defendant has a severe form, he said. Therapy alone would not work, and certain symptoms can persist even with medication. But once they tried a certain medication, the defendant began to speak more and his thinking became more organized at the state hospital, Dunn said.
“(The defendant) was insane when he committed this mass shooting,” he said, adding that the King Soopers shooting happened because he had untreated schizophrenia and because the screaming voices in his head told him to commit the crime.
In addition, he was delusional and paranoid, and his reality was not the reality of the world, Dunn said.
“The root cause of this was his disease,” he said near the end of his opening statements. “After hearing that, you will be asked to apply your common sense and apply to the law and each of you individually will be asked to render the verdict.”
Returning the verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity acknowledges that the defendant committed the shooting, but was not sane at the time, he said.
“That will ensure that a further injustice is not done,” Dunn said.
That concluded the defense’s opening statements.
Following the first lunch break of the trial, prosecutors began calling witnesses to the stand.
The witnesses on the first afternoon consisted of individuals who either worked at the King Soopers, or were nearby or shopping at the grocery store.
The first witness was Jesse Brown, who had gone to King Soopers on that Monday afternoon in March of 2021. Brown was backing into a parking spot when he heard a loud boom. It wasn’t until the second boom that he recognized the noises as gunshots.
Brown described seeing a man approach a white van in the parking lot, holding up a rifle to the driver’s window, and pulling the trigger twice. Brown panicked and put his car in drive, proceeding to leave the parking lot as fast as he could, while yelling “active shooter” at the top of his lungs.
On the stand, Brown told prosecutors it appeared the defendant was familiar with the rifle.
Brown also memorized as many details as he could about the suspect before calling 911 and relaying that information to dispatch.
The next witness was Johnnie Lee Schan, who was on the phone with Neven Stanisic — the first victim of the shooting. Stanisic was shot while sitting inside his van in the parking lot.
Schan described Stanisic as a “good kid more than anything” who always answered his phone calls. They were on a phone call when Stanisic was shot. Schan heard the booms, but thought Stanisic may have dropped a tool. He was not sure what was happening.
Schan called Stanisic several times, but never heard back from his friend and colleague.
Another witness called on the first day of the trial was Kelly Door, who worked as a meat market manager for King Soopers. He was working on the day of the mass shooting. Door was in the process of buying a bagel when he heard the first shot echo throughout the grocery store.
He initially thought the gunshots may have come from people in the parking lot, but then saw the shooter. He felt as though he had “forever” to consider his next move. He tried to count the gunshots, but stopped after he heard six.
Eventually, Door sought shelter near his car in the parking lot, where he would remain for hours that day.
Several other witnesses took the stand on Thursday, many testifying about their experiences at the grocery store during the shooting, and giving the jury an idea of what happened that day from a variety of perspectives.
Witness testimony resumes on Friday at 9 a.m.
Watch Denver7's previous coverage of the Boulder King Soopers shooting in the video playlist above.
