PORTLAND, Ore. — The lawyer for alleged MAX attacker Jeremy Christian may use the insanity defense for the man accused of killing two men on a train and critically wounding a third.
In documents filed Thursday in Multnomah County Circuit Court, lawyer Greg Scholl writes he "intends to rely on the defense of mental disease or defect at the time of the charged conduct."
Christian lacked the capacity to form the intent to commit his crimes, Scholl says. He was also "suffering from an extreme emotional disturbance" at the time of the incident.
On May 26, 2017, Christian spewed hate speech at two black teenage girls on a MAX train in Portland, and then allegedly stabbed three men who stepped in to intervene.
Two of the victims, 53-year-old Ricky John Best and 23-year-old Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, were killed. The third victim, 21-year-old Micah Fletcher, was critically wounded but survived.
Police say Christian confessed to the killings. His murder trial is set for June 2019.
Before the fatal attack, Christian was arrested multiple times over a decade and a half. The day before the stabbings he was accused of throwing a bottle of Gatorade at a black woman on a MAX train.
Christian was also thrown out of an alt-right event in Portland in April 2017 for making racist comments.
Last August, he was charged with fourth-degree assault for attacking a black inmate in the county jail in July.