Sign up for one of our email newsletters.
Updated 1 hour ago
A Westmoreland County judge ruled Friday that a former Franklin Regional High School student cannot plead guilty but mentally ill for a 2014 knife attack that injured 20 classmates and a security guard.
The ruling means that Alex Hribal, 19, will either go to trial or plead guilty without a mental health finding.
“Although the court finds that Hribal may have suffered from a psychotic illness, the court is of the opinion that Hribal possessed the capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct and substantially confirm his conduct to the law in April 9, 2014,” wrote Judge Christopher Feliciani wrote in the ruling.
Hribal faces 21 counts each of attempted murder and aggravated assault as well as a weapons offense. He is accused of using two kitchen knives to slash and stab victims as he ran down a school hallway before the start of class.
In November, Hribal attempted to plead guilty but mentally ill after his attorney presented testimony from mental health experts who diagnosed him as schizophrenic and psychotic at the time of the assault.
District Attorney John Peck argued Hribal's mental condition did not rise to the level required to enter a mentally ill plea.
In court documents, Peck argued that Hribal had a conscious desire to harm classmates and deliberately planned the incident to resemble a 1999 school shooting in Colorado.
Hribal wrote days before the stabbing that was found in his school locker that explained his reasons for the stabbings and his desire to kill fellow students, Peck said.
Defense attorney Pat Thomassey previously said that his client would go to trial if Feliciani rejected the mentally ill guilty plea.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
