KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — An unemployed truck driver accused in a fatal church shooting plans an insanity defense for the rampage that left two people dead and six wounded, his lawyer said Wednesday.
Jim D. Adkisson, 58, waived a preliminary hearing Wednesday in what public defender Mark Stephens called a move to lay the groundwork for an insanity plea by getting his client’s mental state evaluated as soon as possible.
Stephens said Tennessee law requires that the case get to the criminal-court level before the defense receives money to pay for a mental evaluation.
“It is my burden to prove that he was insane at the time of the commission of the offense,” Stephens said outside court. “It is absolutely critical a mental-health expert see him now at this critical stage.”
Prosecutors have agreed to move the case quickly to the grand jury, which is expected to return an indictment with additional charges, possibly in a few weeks, Stephens said.
Adkisson is charged with a single count of first-degree murder and is being held in lieu of $1 million bond.
Prosecutors say that he fired three blasts with a sawed-off shotgun on July 27 at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville.
Police say Adkisson targeted the church because of its liberal leanings, citing a letter they found in his sport utility vehicle in the church parking lot and a statement he allegedly gave after the shooting.
Knoxville Police Chief Sterling Owen said Adkisson bought the shotgun at a pawnshop about a month before, and his letter was written about a week before.
Adkisson carried 76 shells into the church, according to investigators. Police say he told them he expected to keep shooting until officers killed him.
Killed were Greg McKendry, 60, an usher hailed as a hero for shielding others from gunfire, and Linda Kraeger, 61, a retired English professor who had come to see a friend’s grandchild in the church play.
