Families of the victims of a 2022 Raleigh mass shooting allege that lawyers for the suspect are withholding critical information about his mental health care ahead of trial.
Lawyers representing the victims’ families in a motion filed Tuesday in Wake Superior Court accused the defense team for Austin Thompson of applying a “blanket Fifth Amendment” response to all questions lawyers for the victims asked, including refusing to “identify [Thompson’s] current mental-health providers,” as well as the medications Thompson took or how they would impair him.
The motion claims that one of Thompson’s lawyers, James Welsh, stated that Thompson would not produce any further discovery responses because “criminal defense counsel would not allow it.”
Welsh didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment late Tuesday.
Thompson is accused of killing five people in 2022 in Raleigh’s Hedingham neighborhood. Thompson, who was 15 at the time, faces five counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and one count of assault with a firearm on a law enforcement official.
The victims’ families filed a lawsuit against Thompson, his parents and the homeowners’ association in October 2024, claiming Thompson had several problems before the shooting, including arguments with other residents in the community.
The motion filed Tuesday says that Thompson’s lawyers’ purported rationale for not releasing the health documents wasn’t valid.
“[Thompson’s] refusal is not based on any individual privilege analysis, constitutional concern or legal principle,” the motion stated. “It is a blanket directive imposed by attorneys who are not counsel of record for this action and who have elected to disregard a standing court order.”
According to the motion, the victims’ lawyers requested mental health records from Thompson’s lawyers on June 5. Thompson’s lawyers returned answers to the victims’ questions under seal.
Days after WRAL News learned of Thompson’s planned defense, the victims’ lawyers asked a judge to unseal the responses. The court ordered Thompson’s defense team to disclose what was under seal, which the plaintiffs said Thompson’s defense team received on Friday.
“[Thompson] continues to invoke his mental state and incapacity as both a litigation sword and a discovery shield,” the plaintiffs’ motion says. “This is precisely the ‘offensive use’ of privilege and capacity-based defenses that North Carolina law prohibits. He cannot pursue a litigation advantage in both cases while blocking all inquiry into the very subject matter on which his defense depends.”