DENVER—Rejecting an insanity defense, a Colorado jury on Monday convicted a man diagnosed with the severe mental disorder schizophrenia of first-degree murder in a 2021 mass shooting at a grocery store in the city of Boulder that killed 10 people including a police officer.
Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 25, had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. The jury instead found the Syria-born man, guilty in Boulder District Court on 10 counts of first-degree murder.
In Colorado, a first-degree murder conviction carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Had Alissa been found not guilty by reason of insanity, he would have been sent to the state psychiatric hospital, with any release from that facility requiring a judge’s approval….