Joplin shooting spree defendant ruled not guilty by reason of insanity
Jul. 28—Tom Mourning Jr., the suspect in a shooting spree five years ago in Joplin that left five people injured, has been found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Judge Gayle Crane rendered the ruling at the conclusion of a hearing July 19 in Jasper County Circuit Court.
Mourning, 31, had been facing five counts of first-degree assault, five counts of armed criminal action and three counts of unlawful use of a weapon from an Aug. 13, 2016, shooting incident on the south side of the city.
The defendant recently entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, leading to the hearing last week at which the judge issued her ruling. The Jasper County prosecutor's office did not oppose the plea, according to Kimberly Fisher, the assistant prosecutor who was trying the case.
"Throughout this (case), his mental illness has been pretty clear," Fisher said. "We rely on evaluations conducted by the (Missouri) Department of Mental Health to determine whether or not a defendant is mentally ill at the time of the offense."
Fisher said Mourning suffers from schizophrenia and all the doctors who have evaluated him concur that he was mentally ill at the time of the shooting spree. She said he will remain in the care and custody of the Department of Mental Health in the wake of the ruling.
The shooting spree began at a residence on South Connecticut Avenue where Mourning was living with his father, who called police to report that his son had just left the address armed with guns after having fired an AR-type rifle through his father's bedroom door.
Police say he fired rounds at an Immanuel Lutheran Church van at 32nd Street and Connecticut Avenue. The driver of the van, Kenneth Eby, was struck by more than one of the rounds and passenger Heidi Gustin was shot in an arm. A second passenger, Karen Mech, was cut by flying glass and shrapnel.
Two dogs inside the van also were struck or grazed by rounds.
Mourning then fired on another vehicle at 32nd Street and Texas Avenue, injuring Donald and Deborah Pugh. Donald Pugh was shot twice, with rounds striking a leg and passing through his shoulder and armpit. His wife sustained cuts from flying shrapnel.
Mourning was first deemed incompetent to stand trial and committed to the Department of Mental Health in November 2016. Legal counsel filed a motion to proceed with the case the following May after doctors determined that he had regained the requisite mental competence to assist in his own defense.
A second order committing him for mental health treatment was issued two months later, eventually leading to another motion to proceed in October 2017. But a third order committing him for mental incompetency was issued in February 2018 and extended in April 2019.
The prosecutor's office sought a hearing in October 2020 to have the defendant medicated involuntarily because he had been refusing to take the drugs prescribed for him.
The judge directed the Department of Mental Health at that time to follow its proposed treatment of him and report back to the court in six months, which led to the filing in April of a mental health evaluation and motion to proceed with the case by an attorney for the department.
The motion read: "The examiner at Fulton State Hospital has found that the defendant's unfitness to proceed no longer endures and that this individual does have the capacity to understand the proceedings and assist in his own defense."
Fisher explained to the Globe on Tuesday that determination of Mourning's fitness to stand trial and assist in his own defense and the question whether he was mentally ill at the time of the alleged crimes are two separate issues.
She said the court has found, and the prosecutor's office does not dispute, that the degree of mental illness the defendant was suffering at the time of the shooting spree rendered Mourning unable to conform to the behavioral prohibitions of the law.
