State law requires that charges be dismissed because the defendant is incompetent to stand trial.
AURORA, Colo — A man charged with shooting and wounding three people in June 2024 is due in court Wednesday for a hearing that could end a legal odyssey that’s been stalled since he was found incompetent to stand trial.
That determination by doctors means he cannot understand the legal proceedings or assist in his own defense – and, under Colorado law, that he can’t be prosecuted or imprisoned.
Benson was accused of a remarkably similar shooting in 2018, but that case was dismissed after doctors found him incompetent.
Under Colorado law, the charges in the current case will have be dismissed – but Benson’s lawyer has held off on requesting that while working to get committed to a locked mental health treatment center. It has taken much longer than initially anticipated and the governor’s office is working on the issue.
It’s possible that could happen at Wednesday’s hearing.
“One of the shortcomings in our criminal law is that if an individual is found incompetent to proceed, eventually the charges are dismissed,” said defense attorney Scott Robinson, a 9NEWS legal analyst. “There’s no automatic vehicle for hospitalization.”
The 2018 case, Robinson said, illustrates the potential danger of simply releasing someone after criminal charges are dismissed over the issue of competency.
“The entire time I’ve been practicing, an individual who’s found incompetent to proceed and not likely to be restored to competency is simply released and the charges are dismissed,” Robinson said. “Which is a wretched outcome – which is a danger both to the individual released and, more importantly, to the community at large.”
After Benson was charged with attempted murder in that 2018 Douglas County case, court proceedings languished for five years over questions of his mental health. In the fall of 2023, after the conclusion he was incompetent and continued treatment was not likely to change that, a judge dismissed the case, as is required under Colorado law, and he was released.
In early 2024, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office released Benson’s guns to his wife after he ceded power of attorney to her.
Among those guns was the AK-47 semiautomatic rifle he’s now accused of firing at motorists in 2018 – the exact same gun used in the June 2024 Aurora attacks. Three people suffered serious injuries.
That Benson’s attorney and prosecutors are now working to get him into a locked treatment center is, in Robinson’s eye, “exactly what should happen in a civilized society.”
In a statement, Gov. Jared Polis’ spokesman, Eric Maruyama said that “the governor’s office is working with multiple state agencies to help find an appropriate placement for this dangerous individual to ensure they are provided with necessary services, instead of being released back to the community.”