Jared Lee Loughner Behavior: Filing Says Tucson Shooting Suspect Spit On Lawyer, Threw Chair Against Wall

By JACQUES BILLEAUD, Associated Press

PHOENIX -- Lawyers for the suspect in the Tucson shooting rampage have provided the first official picture of their client's behavior behind bars, saying he threw a plastic chair against a wall of his prison cell on two occasions and spit on one of his attorneys.

The attorneys for Jared Lee Loughner also say that their client has been held in solitary confinement since his Jan. 8 arrest. His prison behavior was revealed in a request by his attorneys to prevent prison authorities from forcibly giving him anti-psychotic drugs.

Loughner has been at a federal prison facility in Springfield, Mo., where mental health experts will try to make him psychologically fit to stand trial. He arrived May 28 and will spend up to four months there. A judge has twice denied requests by Loughner's attorneys to be given notice before their client is drugged.

Defense attorneys said a prison administrative hearing on June 14 found Loughner was a danger to himself. They don't know whether prison officials have started giving him drugs.

The filing doesn't provide a lot of detail of Loughner's behavior, but does reveal that he threw a chair during a March 28 interview with psychologist Christina Pietz. It doesn't give details of the other chair-throwing incident, nor does it specify which one of his lawyers he spat on more than two months ago.

A message left for lead Loughner attorney, Judy Clarke, wasn't immediately returned Monday afternoon.

At a hearing last month to determine if he's fit to stand trial, Loughner had an outburst in which he lowered his head to within inches of the courtroom table, lifted his head and began a loud and angry rant. "Thank you for the free kill. She died in front of me. Your cheesiness," according to a court transcript. It wasn't clear who he was referring to.

Loughner has pleaded not guilty to 49 charges stemming from the Jan. 8 shooting that killed six and injured 13, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

If Loughner is later determined to be competent enough to understand the case against him and assist his lawyers, the court proceedings will resume. If he isn't deemed competent at the end of his treatment, Loughner's stay at the facility can be extended.

Loughner's lawyers haven't said whether they intend to present an insanity defense, but noted in court filings that his mental condition will likely be a central issue at trial.

Comments

[ProgressivesArePatriots]

01:02 AM on 07/02/2011

Somehow we need to balance the Second Amendment with considerations that take into account an individual's mental health BEFORE that person buys a gun. It's not enough to smply look into a person's criminal background.

However, to be a country like THAT, we'd need to reform the way our country views issues like mental illness through a more humanistic prism. That's the first step toward actually having a nationalized health care infrastructure- something that this country will STILL lack even after Obama's health care reforms kick-in. In other countries, such as the U.K., a lot of care is taken to PAY ATTENTION to behavior that may be deemed "anti-social."

In the U.S., unfortunately, if we ever did such a thing, there'd be people yelling "socialist" and "bleeding heart" at you for proposing such a change in our ATTITUDES nationally. I hope this country someday wakes up, though.

This tragedy could have been avoided.

[InvisibleOneThere]

10:51 AM on 07/03/2011

This tragedy could have been avoided in an even simpler way. To his classmates, Loughner was a seemingly normal kid at age 16. What exacerbated his insanity was the fact that as he grew more disturbed, he became more and more isolated and aimless. He wanted to do good, he wanted to be a part and he wanted to have a sense of purpose, but he was denied by the Army, then fired from his job at Quiznos, and then fired as a volunteer. What would have really prevented this crime is if somebody offered to train him for a specific trade and he committed to that trade. But education is expensive, not everyone immediately knows what he or she wants to do with his life and jobs are hard to come by. Loughner is a classic example of one of the million nobodies who falls through America's cracks. He got angry and went crazy because he was fighting against this. I'm not saying what he did was right, but it's indicative of much larger issue. To avoid tragedies like these, America NEEDS to care about every single person and give them an effective and financially lucrative way to live.

[carmeld45]

11:13 AM on 07/01/2011

Why are we wasting tax payers money to give this man a trial and eventually the death penalty, I say throw a pair of shoe strings in his cell and leave him alone for a few minutes. That will only cost tax payers about 40 cent, for the laces. In understand that everyone deserves to be judge by a jury of their peers, so take him to the mental ward and have the trial their, those are his peers. This "being" is sick...

[skexie]

03:40 AM on 06/30/2011

I used to be strongly for the death penalty, but seeing all the comments calling...even thirsting...for this guy's blood makes me want to reassess that opinion.

[Paul Weiskel]

01:23 AM on 06/30/2011

It's times like these where it is impossible to fathom what could be going through someones head, if he is mentally deranged then I hope he gets the help he needs. It is truly a sad situation all around.

It is alarming to see so many people wanting this kid dead as soon as possible... what would that solve?

[hdvh56]

11:20 AM on 06/29/2011

Its time to execute uncle Fester....

[TFlint]

10:04 AM on 06/29/2011

So? Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft spits and throws chairs too.

[dangerousjerk]

04:22 AM on 06/29/2011

A very good argument for torture.....I'd run him over with a steam roller, legs first....Now THAT'S what I wanna see on Pay per View !

[cmtatter]

06:00 AM on 06/29/2011

You know what to do with a mad dog. You shoot it!

[houstonblastin85]

03:46 AM on 06/29/2011

MaNN this dudes proley acting but needs help PRAY for him if ya pray an his FAM. they need it hopefully are messed up justice takes care of him

[Latisha Donaldson]

04:34 AM on 06/29/2011

Apparently, he came from a family where there was not a lot of interaction going on. His parents certainly didn't bother to check on some of his activities - like the arsenal he kept in a shed on their property.

[fordgarye]

02:58 AM on 06/29/2011

I don't dispute what Loughner did - what I would like to say is that we have thousands in jail or prison cells who are mentally ill - because there is no place for them. In the 1960's, psychiatric drugs came into heavy use, someone got the idea to close state hospitals to save money leaving these people in the community - they could take their drugs and be productive citizens - or not cause trouble. This was to save money for the states. In theory it was fine, in practice totally wrong as you cannot depend of many psychiatrically ill peope to take their meds.

As a child of the 50's and 60's - if we saw a "bum" living on the street we were shocked. Here, all these years later - the streets are full of barely functioning or outright psychotic men and women, and the only way we deal with them is to make them into criminals and occasionally put them in jail. The population of US jails and prisons is approximately 25 to 35% certifiable mentally ill because we have no better place to put them. They receive no treatment - only to be later discharged to the streets and later sent back to jail.

Loughner is totally gone needing to be removed from society permanently - but he won't be the last, not until we start doing something to treat the mentally ill before they become a serious danger to society. This is in no

[dazey1st]

02:57 AM on 06/29/2011

If he attends his own trial I doubt that he will actually sit in the court room largely because unless he is medicated he is too volatile. This guy will have to be present in a glass or caged enclosure. Also finding a jury that can honestly swear to not having any agenda is going to be very difficult unless they were living in a cave or in a coma. Anyway, if he's found guilty and no doubt he will I think that wasting a bullet, a cell, a key, a match, a gurney with straps aren't going to make the most use of him. I'm suggesting CHUB, there are plenty of hungry sharks out there and we will have recycled him for a worthy cause. In fact if this method were used on a more regular basis it might deter sharks from the need to come closer to shore and attacking swimmers etc.

[Latisha Donaldson]

04:35 AM on 06/29/2011

Well, the judge could have him bound and gag, like a judge did to one of the Chicago Seven protesters.

[dazey1st]

07:35 PM on 06/29/2011

The Chicago Seven, Bobby Seale, but you forgot that according to Crosby, Stills and Nash " they chained him to the floor". We both agree restraint is necessary however, I "baggy" (Brit expression it means "I choose") he doesn't get to choose.

[T003]

02:55 AM on 06/29/2011

Spitting and throwing chairs and ranting are not solely the actions of a mentally ill person. They are also the actions of a sane but remorseless murderer who wants to gloat and get everyone's attention all over again. There may be drugs that will sedate him, but there may not be drugs that will cure him, as he may not actually be 'ill' in the medical sense of the word. Either way, I hope they are employing maximum security measures at all times with this creep.

[momster1022]

02:29 AM on 06/29/2011

Looks like your typical teabagger to me

[fineartist1]

02:55 AM on 06/29/2011

Very nice and insightful comment, thank you. It's nice to know who you are.

[ultravl]

05:38 AM on 06/29/2011

Fineartist, I hope and pray your statement to Momster was meant to be a sarcastic remark.....

[JoJo66]

04:11 AM on 06/29/2011

An unfounded comment from a Liberal as usual. By the way a teabagger is a homosexual term, something you probably know all about.

[Runnergrl]

01:26 AM on 06/29/2011

I think it is really sad to think this once was a little boy who played in the band and was just a normal child. In middle school he became more isolated and to himself. I often wonder why hisparents or extended family did not see that a problem was developing. I live in Tucson and I really feel that the system in many ways failed this young man. I am sure that Gabriella Giffords would wonder these same thoughts also. There were so very many signs when he attended the community college and even they allowed him to slip through the mental health cracks. Too many people saw the signs and did nothing. Its very sad for so many victims and even this young man is a victim in a certain sense.

[lydatarz]

01:23 AM on 06/29/2011

Finding him unfit for trial is part of the tactic of his defense. He understood how to obtain a gun and bullets. He understood how to load it and how to drive a car to the area where he did the shooting. He also understood who his main target was. Unfit to breathe the same air as his victims? Yes. Unfit to understand his actions? HELL, NO!

[ed88ed88]

01:48 AM on 06/29/2011

Agreed!!! He knew what he was doing then.And he knows what he's doing now!!!

[finallylegal]

02:12 AM on 06/29/2011

absolutely! can't anybody see this guy is just trying to play crazy!

[lydatarz]

01:58 PM on 06/29/2011

His lawyers are telling him what to do and how to act, since they really have NO defense.

[slxtr23]

01:22 AM on 06/29/2011

I say leave a rope and a chair in his cell and let him do the rest. Not guilty. PLEASE!!!!!!!! What a waste of tax payers money to even put a defense on for this derranged individual. Put him in the middle of the wild fires burning in New Mexico and tell him if he gets out alive he is free and make sure an army of people are lined up to shot his a** if he does make it out then throw his body back in the fire. Good riddence.