A judge has withdrawn an order filed last week requiring the state's mental health institute to provide an explanation for why it had not filed status reports on treatment for the man accused of carrying out last year's Boulder supermarket massacre.
Two evaluations last fall deemed the accused gunman, 22-year-old Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, incompetent to stand trial. Judge Ingrid Bakke ordered the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo to provide status reports every 30 days ahead of a scheduled hearing in March, with the first report addressing the likelihood of restoring Alissa's competence.
As of Feb. 16, Bakke wrote the mental health institute had not provided any reports. She originally ordered a representative for the institute to appear in court March 10 to address the failure to file reports.
But in response to the show cause order, the mental health institute provided a progress report, a spokesperson for the Boulder County district attorney confirmed. Bakke has withdrawn the order to appear.
"This step is necessary because we want to avoid undue delays and ensure that the defendant receives the treatment required to restore him to competency as soon as possible," District Attorney Michael Dougherty said in a statement.
Competence addresses defendants' ability to have a rational understanding of the charges against them and to participate in their defense. At Alissa's first court appearance a few days after the shootings, his attorneys suggested he suffers from mental illness, but did not elaborate.
A competence review hearing has been scheduled for 3 p.m. March 15.
The massacre last March in Boulder's King Soopers on Table Mesa Drive killed 10 people. The defendant faces more than 100 charges and sentence enhancers, including 10 counts of first-degree murder.
